Declan praying Group.

control the oversized colony. In the East African campaign of 1941, Nigerian regiments achieved the first major success against the Axis powers with the fastest military advance in history at the time.[12] In 1956, oil fields were discovered in Nigeria. Since then, vandalism, oil theft and illegal, unprofessional refining by local residents have caused the contamination of the Niger Delta with crude and heavy oil, particularly around disused exploratory boreholes.[13][14][15]

Nigeria became independent in 1960. From 1967 to 1970, the "Biafra War" raged in the south-east - one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times. After three decades mostly of increasingly restrictive military dictatorships, Nigeria became a democratic federal republic based on the US model in 1999. Quadrennial elections are criticised as "non-transparent".[16] Nevertheless, changes of power in the presidential villa at A*o Rock took place peacefully in 2007, 2010, 2015 and 2023, making Nigeria one of the few stable democracies in the region - despite its shortcomings. The Boko Haram revolt of 2014, which received much attention in the West, fell apart due to infighting and the united approach of Nigeria and its neighbours. The spread of the Ebola epidemic to the slums of Lagos in the same year was prevented by professional crisis management.[17] Recent years have seen the rise of the Nigerian music and film industry and success in software programming with five out of seven African tech unicorns.[18] With large new refineries, the country attempts since January 2024 to process the extracted domestic crude oil on its own and in a professional manner in the future (meaning without heavy oil as a waste product).[19][20]

The biggest security problem is the numerous kidnappings, 38% of Nigerians personally know a kidnap victim.[21] Due to the abrupt economic turnaround in 2023, 64% of Nigerians are hungry or cannot finance basic needs.[22] 78% rate the work of President Tinubu as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.[22]