Country in
Africa bordering
Benin,
Niger,
Chad,
Cameroon, and the
Gulf of Guinea. It has a lot of
oil (and is disputing with
Equatorial Guinea about who has the rights to the area where there's more under the sea floor). Independent from the
UK since
1960, in
1967 its eastern region tried to
secede and become the Republic of
Biafra. The rest of Nigeria invaded and fighting went on until
1970 when the Biafrans surrendered.
For about 15 years until 1999, the country was under military rule. The CIA World Factbook now describes it as a "republic transitioning from military to civilian rule." As I write this, there has been rioting and clashes between various ethnic groups and between Muslims and Christians, including northern provinces that want to extend the amount of law that's based on Islamic practice and southern provinces which oppose this. Sad to think that the military rule actually held the country together.