European+Influence+in+Nigeria

Outline: Intro--> Who Nigeria was colonized by, when they became independent and how they became independent, Nigeria's effect on the rest of the world. Paragraph 1: Who colonized Nigeria, date of the start, date of the end, and summary of what happened duriong this control Paragraph 2: Nigeria becomes independent, date of independence, what they did differently compared to europen control, what they did the same compared to european control Paragraph 3: How Nigeria is influenced today by the rest of the world and how Nigeria has / still is influencing the world Conclusion: European country colonized Nigeria for several years, but once they left, Nigeria became an independent country where they changed some things, but kept others and this has caused Nigeria to be more susceptible when recieving guidance from certain countries and has influenced certain countries even more.

Nigeria is a country filled with several different ethnic groups such as the Ijo and the Ogani. This has caused Nigeria to be a predominately divided country. In 1914, Great Britain chose to blend the protectorate of Nigeria with the rest of Nigeria creating a division between the North, South, and the Lagos colonies. After several years of Great Britain controlling the governmental arena of Nigeria, they left. And in 1960 Nigeria declared its independence, but this was only the start of a constant churning turmoil that is still occurring today with-in the country. The continual turmoil that has resulted after Great Britain left Nigeria to become an independent country has caused less of an oil industry for Nigeria and the surrounding countries. Great Britain won the fight to take control of Nigeria during the “African Scramble” and took control of Nigeria in 1914. During this time frame, Great Britain recombined the protectorate Nigeria with the rest of Nigeria. When they united these two sections, they caused a divide between the North which was mostly filled with the Hausa-Fulani and Muslims, the South which was vastly Yoruba and Igbo, and the finally colony was the Lagos. And in general there was a growing amount of Nigerians converting into Christians. These religious divides were very difficult to control, but also large and diverse. And then in October 1960 Great Britain left Nigeria leaving them with themselves making their only real option was to become independent. In 1960 when Nigeria gained its independence from Great Britain, they created their own constitution which created an ethnically based federation. A governmental system that the Nigerians adopted from the Great Britain’s was the parliamentary style government. This gave the central government the limit of power for defense, security, foreign relations, commercial policies, and fiscal policies. Even with this new independent government in Nigeria, they were still dealing with the tensions between the ethnics, regions, and religious tensions. Great Britain left Nigeria with these tensions creating a more difficult attempt for Nigeria to control itself successfully. This caused the original regions, the North, the West, and the East to step up and become the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria while the 400 smaller ethnic groups became almost completely excluded from any political and economic power. From this quick formation of the ethnical divides created governmental instability that has lasted for decades. Once the parliamentary democracy and the constitution ended, a group of Igbo army officers assassinated the prime minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, in order to create a military government. January 15, 1966 was just the beginning of the several failed governments of Nigeria. This newly established military government wanted to centralize power and maintain its hold on the oil-rich region in the east. Sadly this new found power did not cause any of the tensions to resolve; rather it caused the tensions to worsen ethnically. So in July of 1966, another group overthrew the government by killing Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi who was leading this whole government, and replacing him with General Yakubu Gowon. He was from the northern Hausa ethnic group. This caused ethnic violence that was largely bloody killing tens of thousands of Igbos. As a result, nationalism strengthened between the Igbos and Colonel Emeka Ojukwu started a Igbo secessionist movement. Ojukwu saw Gowon’s attempt to forge a federalist compromise through the creation of twelve semiautonomous states as a ploy so Ojukwu tried to make an independent state. This new state he called the Republic of Biafra and this division erupted into a three year long civil war that ended with Biafra defeated and one central government was in power again. Sadly this civil war caused a rise in the tensions between the different ethnic groups, created a larger division between the North and the South, and even increased the tensions between the different religions. From Gowon’s lack of leadership to lessen these tensions, he was overthrown in 1975 and Murtala Muhammad took over power. And within the year of this new power he was killed and Lt. General Olusegun Obasanjo was declared the new leader of Nigeria. Obasanjo seemed the most promising of the leaders since the Great Britain’s because he had a military background, was close to Muhammad, and he had the support of the north. Once Obasanjo accepted his power, he recreated the civilian pledge and created a support system where Sheu Shegari was selected to be the President of the Nigerian Second Republic. And what has started to become a trend in Nigerian government, Shegari was overthrown by Muhammadu Buhari in 1983, but then Buhari was overthrown by Major General Ibrahim Babangida in 1985. Within about nine years Nigeria had gone through four different leaders all with different roles within the government. Babangida seemed to be leading Nigeria in the right direction until 1993 when he choose to hold a general election on June 12th and then quickly thereafter he changed his mind and got rid of the free and fair voting process and appointed Ernest Shonekan to run a temporary new government with General Sani Abacha taking the role of Vice Chairman. This change of leadership caused several of Mashood Abiola’s supporters in his election to protest causing the newest legislature to be diminished and for the military to once again take governmental control. And through this Abiola continued to try to become an actual ruler of Nigeria, but was arrested when Abacha accused him of treason in June of 1994. Abiola spent the rest of his life in prison until 1998 when he died. Abacha’s rule in Nigeria was considered to be one of the most “brutal and corrupt” in all of Nigerian history. He kept the Northern ethnic’s strong power over all of Nigeria creating unrest within the country as a whole. This unrest was seen in the weakened divisions of the three major ethnic and religious groups, but all the while creating new tensions between smaller groups such as the Ijo and the Ogoni ethnic groups who are located near the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta is the location where most of Nigeria’s oil industry profit is. So when there is conflict at the Niger Delta, the oil industry starts to suffer. Ironically enough, Abacha did not complete his promises to the international community of making a transition to the civilian rule before he died in June 1998. June 1998, General Abdulsalami Abubakar took control of Nigeria and introduced a democratic election in 1999. This election brought Obasanjo back to power and democracy returned to Nigeria. Obasanjo choose to make new constitution that formed Nigeria’s government like the United States. They formed a legislature with two different houses and an executive branch. This executive branch is independent while the legislature is very much active within the government. This new constitution also left Nigeria with thirty six states in order to “reduce regionalized tensions”. Finally Nigeria found a government that has worked for several years. The Nigerian’s accepted this newfound democracy. And showed their approval when they reelected Obasanjo in 2003. Despite all of Nigeria’s conflicts within itself politically and socially, they did affect the rest of the world in the oil industry and with its natural resources. Nigeria is split in its economy with the profit from the oil industry to the rest of the world and with the profit of agriculture. The Niger Delta is their source for oil which makes it easy for the distribution of the oil, and cocoa is the most profitable resource found in Nigeria. This helps the rest of the world obtain its food and fuel for its country. Nigeria may be selling and trading their oil and resources to other countries, but they are also teaching the world what not to do when it comes to government. They have had several leaders and several governments fail, while having the different ethnic groups’ revolt and overthrow their leaders. Although today Nigeria seems to be stable, it is still considered the second most corrupt country compared to Bangladesh. word count:1,337

Works Cited Davis, R. Hunt, ed. "Nigeria during the colonial era." //Encyclopedia of AFrican History and Culture: The Colonial Era// (1850 to 1960). vol. 4. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2005. web.

Davis, R. Hunt, ed. "Nigeria, post-independence."//Encyclopedia of African History and Culture: Independent Africa (1960-Present),// vol. 5. New York: Facts on File, Inc.,2005. web.

Davis, R. Hunt, ed. "Northern People's Congress (NPC)." //Encyclopedia of AFrican History and Culture: Independent Africa (1960 to Present),// vol. 5. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2005. web.

Thompson, Richard S. "Nigeria and Great Britain."//Great Britain: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present.I// New York:Facts on File, Inc.,2003.web.

Wahlert, Matthew H. "Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP)."In Ackerman, Marsha E., Michael Schroeder, Janice J. Terry, Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur, and Mark F. Whitters, eds/ //Encylopedia of World History: Crisis and Achievement, 1900 to 1950,// vol. 5. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2008. web.