Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Nigerian Republic

Nigerian First Republic

The First Republic was the republican government of Nigeria between 1963 and 1966 governed by the first republican Constitution.

The founding of the First Republic (1963)

Nigeria gained independence from Britain on October 1, 1960, when the Declaration of Independence was signed in the main boardroom of the Federal Palace Hotel. It was declared a republic three years later on October 1, 1963. The constitution and Westminster system of government were inherited from the British colonialists.

[edit]Presidents

Ceremonial Presidents during the Nigerian First Republic
PresidentTermParty
Nnamdi AzikiweOctober 1, 1963 - January 16, 1966NCNC

[edit]Prime ministers

Prime Ministers during the Nigerian First Republic
Prime MinisterTermParty
Abubakar Tafawa BalewaOctober 1, 1963 - January 16, 1966NPC

Politics of the First Republic

The country was split into three geopolitical regions — Western Region, Eastern Region and Northern Region — and its political parties took on the identities and ideologies of each region. The Northern People's Party (NPC) represented the interests of the predominantlyHausa/Fulani Northern Region, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) (later renamed to National Council of Nigerian Citizens) represented the predominantly Igbo Eastern Region, and the Action Group (AG) dominated the Yoruba Western Region. The NPC took control of the federal parliament, and formed a coalition government with the NCNC. Ahmadu Bello, leader of the NPC, was poised to become the Prime Minister, but instead he chose to become the Premier of the Northern Region, and supported his deputy Tafawa Balewa'scandidacy for Prime Minister. This raised suspicions amongst the southern politicians, who resented the idea of a federal government controlled by a regional leader through his designated proxy. In the end, Tafawa Balewa of NPC was named Prime Minister and Head of Government, and Nnamdi Azikiwe of NCNC was named President. At Nigeria's independence, the Northern Region gained more seats in parliament than both Eastern and Western regions combined—this would cement Northern dominance in Nigerian politics for years to come. Resentment amongst southern politicians precipitated into political chaos in the country. Obafemi Awolowo, Premier of Western Region, was charged with sedition and convicted in a controversial trial. With incarceration of Awolowo, Samuel Akintola was elected as the Premier of Western Region. Akintola was widely seen as a tool of the North, and he presided over the most chaotic era in Western Region—one which earned it the nickname "the Wild-Wild West". This forced the Balewa government to crack-down on lawlessness in the West using military might.

[edit]Notable politicians in the First Republic

[edit]The Coup

The political unrest during the mid-sixties culminated into Nigeria's first military coup d'état. On 15 January 1966, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and his fellow rebel soldiers led by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna (mostly of southern extraction) in the Nigerian Army, executed a bloody takeover of all institutions of government. Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, was assassinated along with the premier of Northern Nigeria,Ahmadu Bello, and the Finance Minister, Festus Okotie-Eboh [1]. It is not clear whether President Azikiwe's life was spared because he was out of the country at the time, or whether he had been informed about the impending coup and was out of the country so his life could be spared. Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took control as the first Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria on January 16, 1966.


Nigerian Second Republic

The Second Republic was the republican government of Nigeria between 1979 and 1983 governed by the second republican constitution.

The founding of the Second Republic (1979)

Following the assassination of Nigerian military Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed in 1976, his successor General Olusegun Obasanjo initiated the transition process to terminate military rule in 1979. A new constitution was drafted, which saw the Westminster system of government (previously used in the First Republic) jettisoned for an American-style Presidential system. The 1979 constitution mandated that political parties and cabinet positions reflect the "federal character" of the nation — Political parties were required to be registered in at least two-thirds of the states, and each state was required to produce at least one cabinet member.
The widely monitored 1979 election saw the election of Alhaji Shehu Shagari on the NPN platform. On October 1, 1979, Shehu Shagari was sworn in as the first President and Commander-in-Chief of theFederal Republic of Nigeria.

[edit]Presidents

Presidents during the Nigerian Second Republic
PresidentTermParty
Shehu ShagariOctober 1, 1979 - December 31, 1983NPN

[edit]Political Parties

[edit]Political activism in the Second Republic

Tai Solarin, an educationist, mounted public podiums regularly, to speak-out in defiance of what he strongly felt were the negative views of the Second Republic government. Another such activist was Ayodele Awojobi, a professor of Mechanical Engineering, who filed several law suits and organised political rallies in protest of the Nigerian election results that returned Shehu Shagari, the incumbent, as President in the Second Republic - he strongly believed the results were widely rigged.

[edit]Abolition of Second Republic

The Shagari administration was ejected from power on New Year's Eve 1983. General Muhammadu Buhari, the leader of the rebellion, cited charges of corruption and administrative incompetence as reasons for military intervention. President Shagari was placed under house arrest, and several of his cabinet members were either jailed or exiled.

Nigerian Third Republic

The Third Republic was the planned republican government of Nigeria in 1993 which was to be governed by the Third republican constitution.

The founding of the Third Republic (1993)

The constitution of the Third Republic was drafted in 1989, when General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), the military Head of State, promised to terminate military rule by 1990 – a date which was subsequently pushed back to 1993. IBB lifted the ban on political activity in the spring of 1989, and his government established two political parties: the center-right National Republican Convention (NRC) and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP). Gubernatorial and state legislative elections were conducted in December 1991, while the presidential election was postponed till 12 June 1993 – due to political unrest. MKO Abiola, a wealthy Yoruba businessman, won a decisive victory in the presidential elections on the SDP platform.

[edit]Presidents-Elect

Presidents-Elect during the Nigerian Third Republic
President-ElectElectedParty
MKO AbiolaJune 12, 1993SDP

[edit]Political Parties

[edit]Annulment

On 23 June 1993, IBB had the election annulled, and this threw the country into chaos. IBB eventually bowed to pressures from his inner circle and resigned from office on 23 August 1993. Ernest Shonekan, a Yoruba business man, and the head of IBB’s transition team, assumed the office of the presidency as the Head of the Interim National Government. Shonekan was unable to manage the political turmoil which ensued in the post IBB months. His caretaker government was quietly removed from office, by the Minister of Defence, General Sani Abacha on 17 November 1993. On 11 June 1994, president-elect Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, declared himself president and went into hiding. The Abacha administration hunted Abiola down and arrested him for treason. Abiola remained in prison until his death in 1998.

Nigerian Fourth Republic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nigeria

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Nigeria
The Fourth Republic is the current republican government of Nigeria. Since 1999 it has governed the country according to the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Second Republic, which was in place between 1979 and 1983 and suffers many of the same problems, such as multiple ministries which made policy planning difficult. Nigeria adopted the constitution of the Fourth Republic on May 29, 1999.

Contents

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[edit]The founding of the Fourth Republic (1999)

Following the death of military dictator and de facto ruler of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha in 1998, his successor General Abdusalami Abubakar initiated the transition which heralded Nigeria's return to democratic rule in 1999. The ban on political activities was lifted, and political prisoners were released from detention facilities. The constitution was styled after the ill fated Second Republic — which saw theWestminster system of government jettisoned for an American Presidential system. Political parties were formed (PDP, ANPP, and AD), and elections were set for April 1999. The widely monitored 1999 election saw the election of former military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo on the PDP platform. On 29 May 1999, Obasanjo was sworn in as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In the controversial general election on 21 April 2007, Umaru Yar'Adua of the PDP was elected President.

[edit]Presidents

Presidents during the Nigerian Fourth Republic
PresidentTermParty
Olusegun Obasanjo29 May 1999 – 29 May 2007PDP
Umaru Yar'Adua29 May 2007 – 5 May 2010PDP


Africa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Politics of Africa)
For other uses, see Africa (disambiguation).
Africa
Africa (orthographic projection).svg
Area30,221,532 km2(11,668,598.7 sq mi)
Population1,000,010,000[1] (2005, 2nd)
Pop. density30.51/km2 (about 80/sq mi)
DemonymAfrican
Countries54 (List of countries)
Dependencies
LanguagesList of languages
Time ZonesUTC-1 to UTC+4
Largest citiesList of cities
Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area.[2] With a billion people (as of 2009, see table) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.72% of the World's human population.
The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and theRed Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and theAtlantic Ocean to the west. The continent has 54 sovereign states, including Madagascar, various island groups, and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a member state of the African Union whose statehood is disputed by Morocco.
Africa, particularly central eastern Africa, is widely regarded within the scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidae clade (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million years ago – including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens (modern human) found in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000 years ago.[3]
Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones.[4]

Contents

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Etymology

Afri was the name of several peoples who dwelt in North Africa near Carthage. Their name is usually connected with Phoenician afar, "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis[5] has asserted that it stems from a Berber word ifri or Ifran meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers.[6] Africa or Ifri or Afer[6] is name of Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania (Berber Tribe of Yafran).[7]
Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of Africa Province, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya. The Roman suffix "-ca" denotes "country or land".[8] The later Muslim kingdom of Ifriqiya, modern-day Tunisia, also preserved a form of the name.
Other etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":
  • the 1st century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Ant. 1.15) asserted that it was named for Epher, grandson of Abraham according to Gen. 25:4, whose descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya.
  • Latin word aprica ("sunny") mentioned by Isidore of Seville in Etymologiae XIV.5.2.
  • the Greek word aphrike (Αφρική), meaning "without cold." This was proposed by historian Leo Africanus (1488–1554), who suggested the Greek word phrike (φρίκη, meaning "cold and horror"), combined with the privative prefix "a-", thus indicating a land free of cold and horror.
  • Massey, in 1881, derived an etymology from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, "to turn toward the opening of the Ka." The Ka is the energetic double of every person and "opening of the Ka" refers to a womb or birthplace. Africa would be, for the Egyptians, "the birthplace."[9]
  • yet another hypothesis was proposed by Michèle Fruyt in Revue de Philologie 50, 1976: 221–238, linking the Latin word with africus'south wind', which would be of Umbrian origin and mean originally 'rainy wind'.
The Irish female name Aifric is sometimes anglicised as Africa, but the given name is unrelated to the geonym.

History

Main article: History of Africa
Further information: History of North Africa, History of West Africa, History of Central Africa, History of East Africa, and History of Southern Africa

Paleohistory

The African prosauropodMassospondylus.
At the beginning of the Mesozoic Era, Africa was joined with Earth's other continents in Pangaea.[10] Africa shared the supercontinent's relatively uniform fauna which was dominated by theropods, prosauropods and primitive ornithischians by the close of the Triassic period.[10] Late Triassic fossils are found through-out Africa, but are more common in the south than north.[10] The boundary separating the Triassic and Jurassic marks the advent of an extinction event with global impact, although African strata from this time period have not been thoroughly studied.[10]
Early Jurassic strata are distributed in a similar fashion to Late Triassic beds, with more common outcrops in the south and less common fossil beds which are predominated by tracks to the north.[10] As the Jurassic proceeded, larger and more iconic groups of dinosaurs like sauropods and ornithopods proliferated in Africa.[10]Middle Jurassic strata are neither well represented nor well studied in Africa.[10] Late Jurassic strata are also poorly represented apart from the spectacular Tendaguru fauna in Tanzania.[10] The Late Jurassic life of Tendaguru is very similar to that found in western North America's Morrison Formation.[10]
Midway through the Mesozoic, about 150–160 million years ago, Madagascar separated from Africa, although it remained connected to Indiaand the rest of the Gondwanan landmasses.[10] Fossils from Madagascar include abelisaurs and titanosaurs.[10]
The African theropod Spinosauruswas the largest known carnivorous dinosaur.
Later into the Early Cretaceous epoch, the India-Madagascar landmass separated from the rest of Gondwana.[10] By the Late Cretaceous, Madagascar and India had permanently split ways and continued until later reaching their modern configurations.[10]
By contrast to Madagascar, mainland Africa was relatively stable in position through-out the Mesozoic.[10] Despite the stable position, major changes occurred to its relation to other landmasses as the remains of Pangea continued to break apart.[10] By the beginning of the Late Cretaceous epoch South America had split off from Africa, completing the southern half of the Atlantic Ocean.[10]This event had a profound effect on global climate by altering ocean currents.[10]
During the Cretaceous, Africa was populated by allosauroids and spinosaurids, including the largest known carnivorous dinosaurs.[10] Titanosaurs were significant herbivores in its ancient ecosystems.[10] Cretaceous sites are more common than Jurassic ones, but are often unable to be dated radiometrically making it difficult to know their exact ages.[10] Paleontologist Louis Jacobs, who spent time doing field work in Malawi,[citation needed] says that African beds are "in need of more field work" and will prove to be a "fertile ground ... for discovery."[10]

Pre-history

Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered on November 24, 1974, in theAwash Valley of Ethiopia'sAfar Depression
Africa is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the humanspecies originating from the continent.[11][12] During the middle of the twentieth century, anthropologistsdiscovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as 7 million years ago. Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have evolved into modern man, such asAustralopithecus afarensis (radiometrically dated to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years BC),[13] Paranthropus boisei (c. 2.3–1.4 million years BC)[14] and Homo ergaster (c. 1.9 million–600,000 years BC) have been discovered.[2]
Throughout humanity's prehistory, Africa (like all other continents) had no nation states, and was instead inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers such as the Khoi and San.[15][16][17]
At the end of the Ice Ages, estimated to have been around 10,500 BC, the Sahara had again become a green fertile valley, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in Sub-Saharan Africa[citation needed]. However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5000 BC the Sahara region was becoming increasingly dry and hostile. The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Since this time dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa, and increasingly during the last 200 years, in Ethiopia.
The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gathering cultures. It is speculated that by 6000 BC cattle were already domesticated in North Africa.[18] In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals including the donkey, and a small screw-horned goat which was common from Algeria to Nubia. In the year 4000 BC the climate of the Sahara started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace.[19] This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification. This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and helped to cause migrations of farming communities to the more tropical climate of West Africa.[19]
By the first millennium BC ironworking had been introduced in Northern Africa and quickly spread across the Sahara into the northern parts ofsub-Saharan Africa[20] and by 500 BC metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa. Ironworking was fully established by roughly 500 BC in many areas of East and West Africa, although other regions didn't begin ironworking until the early centuries AD. Copperobjects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that trans-saharan trade networks had been established by this date.[19]

Early civilizations

Main article: Ancient African history
Colossal statues of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel, Egypt, date from around 1400 BC.
At about 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise of literacy in the Pharaoniccivilisation of Ancient Egypt.[21] One of the world's earliest and longest-lasting civilizations, the Egyptian state continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343 BC.[22][23] Egyptian influence reached deep into modern-day Libya, north to Crete[24] and Canaan[citation needed], and south to the kingdoms of Aksum[citation needed] and Nubia[citation needed].
An independent centre of civilisation with trading links to Phoenicia was established by Phoenicians fromTyre on the north-west African coast at Carthage.[25][26][27]
European exploration of Africa began with Ancient Greeks and Romans. In 332 BC, Alexander the Greatwas welcomed as a liberator in Persian-occupied Egypt. He founded Alexandria in Egypt, which would become the prosperous capital of the Ptolemaic dynasty after his death.[28] Following the conquest of North Africa's Mediterranean coastline by the Roman Empire, the area was integrated economically and culturally into the Roman system. Roman settlement occurred in modern Tunisia and elsewhere along the coast. Christianity spread across these areas from Palestine via Egypt, also passing south, beyond the borders of the Roman world into Nubia and by at least the 6th century into Ethiopia.
In the early 7th century, the newly formed Arabian Islamic Caliphate expanded into Egypt, and then into North Africa. In a short while the local Berber elite had been integrated into Muslim Arab tribes. When the Ummayad capital Damascus fell in the eight century, the Islamic center of the Mediterranean shifted from Syria to Qayrawan in North Africa. Islamic North Africa had become diverse, and a hub for mystics, scholars, jurists and philosophers. During the above mentioned period, Islam spread to sub-Saharan Africa, mainly through trade routes and migration.[29]

9th–18th century

9th century bronzes from theIgbo town of Igbo Ukwu, now at the British Museum[30]
Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities[31] characterised by many different sorts of political organisation and rule. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the San people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the Bantu-speaking people of central and southern Africa, heavily structured clan groups in the Horn of Africa, the large Sahelian kingdoms, and autonomous city-states and kingdoms such as those of the Yoruba and Igbo people (also misspelled as Ibo) in West Africa, and the Swahili coastal trading towns of East Africa.
By the 9th century AD a string of dynastic states, including the earliest Hausa states, stretched across the sub-saharan savannah from the western regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states wereGhana, Gao, and the Kanem-Bornu Empire. Ghana declined in the 11th century but was succeeded by theMali Empire which consolidated much of western Sudan in the 13th century. Kanem accepted Islam in the 11th century.
In the forested regions of the West African coast, independent kingdoms grew up with little influence from the Muslim north. The Kingdom of Nri of the Igbo was established around the 9th century and was one of the first. It is also one of the oldest Kingdom in modern day Nigeria and was ruled by the Eze Nri. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate bronzes, found at the town of Igbo Ukwu. The bronzes have been dated from as far back as the 9th century.[32]
Ashanti yam ceremony, 19th century by Thomas E. Bowdich
The Ife, historically the first of these Yoruba city-states or kingdoms, established government under a priestly oba (ruler), (oba means 'king' or 'ruler' in the Yoruba language), called the Ooni of Ife. Ife was noted as a major religious and cultural centre in Africa, and for its unique naturalistic tradition of bronze sculpture. The Ife model of government was adapted at Oyo, where its obas or kings, called the Alaafins of Oyo once controlled a large number of other Yoruba and non Yoruba city states and Kingdoms, the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey was one of the non Yoruba domains under Oyo control.
The Almoravids, was a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that spread over a wide area of northwestern Africa and the Iberian peninsula during the 11th century.[33] The Banu Hilal and Banu Ma'qil were a collection of Arab Bedouin tribes from the Arabian peninsula who migrated westwards via Egypt between the 11th and 13th centuries. Their migration resulted in the fusion of the Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were Arabized,[34] and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under the unifying framework of Islam.[35]
Ruins of Great Zimbabwe (11th–15th c.)
Following the breakup of Mali a local leader named Sonni Ali (1464–1492) founded the Songhai Empire in the region of middle Niger and the western Sudan and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Jenne in 1473, building his regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. His successor Askia Mohammad I (1493–1528) made Islam the official religion, built mosques, and brought Muslim scholars, including al-Maghili (d.1504), the founder of an important tradition of Sudanic African Muslim scholarship, to Gao.[36]By the 11th century some Hausa states – such as Kano, jigawa, Katsina, and Gobir – had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing caravans, and the manufacture of goods. Until the 15th century these small states were on the periphery of the major Sudanic empires of the era, paying tribute to Songhai to the west and Kanem-Borno to the east.

Height of slave trade

A Point of No Return in Ouidah, Benin, a former gateway for slaves to slave ships
See also: Arab slave trade and Atlantic slave trade
Slavery had long been practiced in Africa.[37][38] Between the seventh and twentieth centuries,Arab slave trade (also known as slavery in the East) took 18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean routes. Between the fifteenth and the nineteenth centuries, the Atlantic slave trade took 7–12 million slaves to the New World.[39][40][41]
In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World, increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.[42]
Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers.[43] The largest powers of West Africa: theAsante Confederacy, the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the Oyo Empire, adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil, cocoa, timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars.[44]

Colonialism and the "Scramble for Africa"

Main article: Colonization of Africa
Further information: Scramble for Africa
Areas of Africa under the control, influence, or claimed control, of the colonial powers in 1914 (at outbreak of World War One).
In the late nineteenth century, the European imperial powers engaged in a major territorial scramble and occupied most of the continent, creating many colonial territories, and leaving only two fully independent states: Ethiopia (known to Europeans as "Abyssinia"), and Liberia.Egypt and Sudan were never incorporated into any European colonial empire, however, after the British occupation of 1882, the country was effectively under British administration until 1922. Imperial rule by Europeans would continue until after the conclusion of World War II, when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence.
Independence movements in Africa gained momentum following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In 1951, Libya, a former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956, Tunisia and Morocco won their independence from France. Ghanafollowed suit the next year, becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be freed. Most of the rest of the continent became independent over the next decade, most often through relatively peaceful means, though in some countries, notably Algeria, it came only after a violent struggle.
Portugal's overseas presence in Sub-Saharan Africa (most notably in Angola, Cape Verde,Mozambique, Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe) lasted from the 16th century to 1975, after the Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a military coup in Lisbon. Zimbabwe won its independence from the United Kingdom in 1980 after a bitter guerrilla war between black nationalists and the white minority Rhodesian government of Ian Smith. Although South Africa was one of the first African countries to gain independence, the state remained under the control of the country's white minority through a system of racial segregation known as apartheid until 1994.

Post-colonial Africa

Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries, most of which still have the borders drawn during the era of European colonialism. Since colonialism, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African states are republics that operate under some form of the presidential system of rule. However, few of them have been able to sustaindemocratic governments on a permanent basis, and many have instead cycled through a series of coups, producing military dictatorships.
Great instability was mainly the result of marginalization of ethnic groups, and graft under these leaders. For political gain, many leaders fanned ethnic conflicts that had been exacerbated, or even created, by colonial rule. In many countries, the military was perceived as being the only group that could effectively maintain order, and it ruled many nations in Africa during the 1970s and early 1980s. During the period from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, Africa had more than 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations. Border and territorial disputes were also common, with the European-imposed borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts.
Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as the policies of the International Monetary Fund, also played a role in instability. When a country became independent for the first time, it was often expected to align with one of the two superpowers. Many countries in Northern Africa received Soviet military aid, while many in Central and Southern Africa were supported by the United States, France or both. The 1970s saw an escalation, as newly independent Angola and Mozambique aligned themselves with the Soviet Union, and the West and South Africa sought to contain Soviet influence by funding insurgency movements. There was a major famine in Ethiopia, when hundreds of thousands of people starved. Some claimed that Marxist/Soviet policies made the situation worse.[45][46][47]
The most devastating military conflict in modern independent Africa has been the Second Congo War. By 2008, this conflict and its aftermath had killed 5.4 million people. Since 2003 there has been an ongoing conflict in Darfur which has become a humanitarian disaster. AIDS has also been a prevalent issue in post-colonial Africa.

Geography

A composite satellite image of Africa (centre) with North America (left) and Eurasia (right) to scale
Main article: Geography of Africa
Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the largest landmass of the Earth. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), 163 km (101 miles) wide.[48] (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.)[49]
From the most northerly point, Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia (37°21' N), to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51'15" S), is a distance of approximately 8,000 km (5,000 miles);[50] from Cape Verde, 17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27'52" E, the most easterly projection, is a distance of approximately 7,400 km (4,600 miles).[51] The coastline is 26,000 km (16,100 miles) long, and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that Europe, which covers only 10,400,000 km² (4,010,000 square miles) – about a third of the surface of Africa – has a coastline of 32,000 km (19,800 miles).[51]
Africa's largest country is Sudan, and its smallest country is the Seychelles, an archipelago off the east coast.[52] The smallest nation on the continental mainland is The Gambia.
Biomes of Africa (see world vegetation map for key)
According to the ancient Romans, Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while "Asia" was used to refer to Anatolia and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between the two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85–165 AD), indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making theisthmus of Suez and the Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of Africa expanded with their knowledge.
Geologically, Africa includes the Arabian Peninsula; the Zagros Mountains of Iran and theAnatolian Plateau of Turkey mark where the African Plate collided with Eurasia. The Afrotropic ecozone and the Saharo-Arabian desert to its north unite the region biogeographically, and theAfro-Asiatic language family unites the north linguistically.

Climate

The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily desert or arid, while its central and southern areas contain both savanna plains and very dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence where vegetation patterns such as sahel, and steppe dominate.

Fauna

Main article: Fauna of Africa
Savanna at Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania.
Africa boasts perhaps the world's largest combination of density and "range of freedom" of wild animal populations and diversity, with wild populations of large carnivores (such as lions, hyenas, and cheetahs) and herbivores (such as buffalo, deer, elephants, camels, and giraffes) ranging freely on primarily open non-private plains. It is also home to a variety of "jungle" animals includingsnakes and primates and aquatic life such as crocodiles and amphibians. Africa also has the largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna.

Ecology

Deforestation is affecting Africa at twice the world rate, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).[53] Some sources claim that deforestation has already wiped out roughly 90% of West Africa's original forests.[54] Since the arrival of humans 2000 years ago, Madagascar has lost more than 90% of its original forest.[55] About 65% of Africa's agricultural land suffers from soil degradation.[56]

Politics

Political map of Africa. (Hover mouse to see name, click area to go to article.)

The African Union (AU) is a 53 member federation consisting of all of Africa's states exceptMorocco. The union was formed, with Addis Ababa as its headquarters, on 26 June 2001. In July 2004, the African Union's Pan-African Parliament (PAP) was relocated to Midrand, in South Africa, but the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights remained in Addis Ababa. There is a policy in effect to decentralize the African Federation's institutions so that they are shared by all the states.
The African Union, not to be confused with the AU Commission, is formed by the Constitutive Act of the African Union, which aims to transform the African Economic Community, a federated commonwealth, into a state under established international conventions. The African Union has a parliamentary government, known as the African Union Government, consisting of legislative, judicial and executive organs. It is led by the African Union President and Head of State, who is also the President of the Pan African Parliament. A person becomes AU President by being elected to the PAP, and subsequently gaining majority support in the PAP. 1 The powers and authority of the President of the African Parliament derive from the Constitutive Act and the Protocol of the Pan African Parliament, as well as the inheritance of presidential authority stipulated by African treaties and by international treaties, including those subordinating the Secretary General of the OAU Secretariat (AU Commission) to the PAP. The government of the AU consists of all-union (federal), regional, state, and municipal authorities, as well as hundreds of institutions, that together manage the day-to-day affairs of the institution.
There are clear signs of increased networking among African organisations and states. In the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire), rather than rich, non-African countries intervening, neighbouring African countries became involved (see also Second Congo War). Since the conflict began in 1998, the estimated death toll has reached 5 million.
Political associations such as the African Union offer hope for greater co-operation and peace between the continent's many countries. Extensive human rights abuses still occur in several parts of Africa, often under the oversight of the state. Most of such violations occur for political reasons, often as a side effect of civil war. Countries where major human rights violations have been reported in recent times include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Côte d'Ivoire.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Africa
Map of the African Economic Community.
Although it has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world's poorest and mostunderdeveloped continent, due to a variety of causes that may include the spread of deadlydiseases and viruses (notably HIV/AIDS and malaria), corrupt governments that have often committed serious human rights violations, failed central planning, high levels of illiteracy, lack of access to foreign capital, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging from guerrillawarfare to genocide).[57] According to the United Nations' Human Development Report in 2003, the bottom 25 ranked nations (151st to 175th) were all African.[58]
Poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and inadequate water supply and sanitation, as well as poor health, affect a large proportion of the people who reside in the African continent. In August 2008, the World Bank[59] announced revised global poverty estimates based on a new international poverty line of $1.25 per day (versus the previous measure of $1.00). 80.5% of the Sub-Saharan Africa population was living on less than $2.50 (PPP) a day in 2005, compared with 85.7% for India.[60]
The new figures confirm that sub-Saharan Africa has been the least successful region of the world in reducing poverty ($1.25 per day); some 50% of the population living in poverty in 1981 (200 million people), a figure that rose to 58% in 1996 before dropping to 50% in 2005 (380 million people). The average poor person in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to live on only 70 cents per day, and was poorer in 2003 than he or she was in 1973 [61] indicating increasing poverty in some areas. Some of it is attributed to unsuccessful economic liberalization programs spearheaded by foreign companies and governments, but other studies and reports have cited bad domestic government policies more than external factors.[62][63][64]
From 1995 to 2005, Africa's rate of economic growth increased, averaging 5% in 2005. Some countries experienced still higher growth rates, notably Angola, Sudan and Equatorial Guinea, all three of which had recently begun extracting their petroleum reserves or had expanded theiroil extraction capacity. The continent has 90% of the world’s cobalt, 90% of its platinum, 50% of its gold, 98% of its chromium, 70% of itstantalite,[65] 64% of its manganese and one-third of its uranium.[66] The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has 70% of the world’scoltan, and most mobile phones in the world have coltan in them. The DRC also has more than 30% of the world’s diamond reserves.[67]Guinea is the world’s largest exporter of bauxite.[68] As the growth in Africa has been driven mainly by services and not manufacturing or agriculture, it has been growth without jobs and without reduction in poverty levels. In fact, the food security crisis of 2008 which took place on the heels of the global financial crisis has pushed back 100 million people into food insecurity. [69]
In recent years, the People's Republic of China has built increasingly stronger ties with African nations. In 2007, Chinese companies invested a total of US$1 billion in Africa.[70]

Demographics

Main articles: African people and Demographics of Africa
Tuareg man from Algeria
Africa's population has rapidly increased over the last 40 years, and consequently it is relatively young. In some African states half or more of the population is under 25 years of age.[71] African population grew from 221 million in 1950 to 1 billion in 2009.[72][73]
Speakers of Bantu languages (part of the Niger-Congo family) are the majority in southern, central and East Africa proper. But there are also several Nilotic groups in East Africa, and a few remaining indigenousKhoisan ('San' or 'Bushmen') and Pygmy peoples in southern and central Africa, respectively. Bantu-speaking Africans also predominate in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, and are found in parts of southern Cameroon. In the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, the distinct people known as the Bushmen (also "San", closely related to, but distinct from "Hottentots") have long been present. The San are physically distinct from other Africans and are the indigenous people of southern Africa. Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of central Africa.[74]
The peoples of North Africa comprise two main groups; Berber and Arabic-speaking peoples in the west, and Egyptians in the east. The Arabs who arrived in the seventh century introduced the Arabic languageand Islam to North Africa. The Semitic Phoenicians, the Iranian Alans, the European Greeks, Romans and Vandals settled in North Africa as well. Berbers still make up the majority in Morocco, while they are a significant minority within Algeria. They are also present in Tunisia andLibya.[75] The Tuareg and other often-nomadic peoples are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. Nubians are a Nilo-Saharan-speaking group (though many also speak Arabic), who developed an ancient civilisation in northeast Africa.
San man from Botswana
Some Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara and Tigrayans, collectively known as "Habesha") speak Semitic languages. The Oromo and Somali peoples speak Cushitic languages, but some Somali clans trace their founding to legendary Arab founders. Sudan and Mauritania are divided between a mostly Arabized north and a native African south (although the "Arabs" of Sudan clearly have a predominantly native African ancestry themselves). Some areas of East Africa, particularly the island of Zanzibar and the Kenyan island of Lamu, received Arab Muslim and Southwest Asian settlers and merchants throughout theMiddle Ages and in antiquity.[76]
Prior to the decolonisation movements of the post-World War II era, Whites were represented in every part of Africa.[77] Decolonisation during the 1960s and 1970s often resulted in the mass emigration of European-descended settlers out of Africa – especially from Algeria (pieds-noirs), Morocco,[78] Kenya, Congo,[79]Angola,[80] Mozambique and Rhodesia. Nevertheless, White Africans remain an important minority in many African states. The African country with the largest White African population is South Africa.[81] TheAfrikaners, the Anglo-Africans and the Coloureds are the largest European-descended groups in Africa today.
Woman from Benin
European colonisation also brought sizeable groups of Asians, particularly people from the Indian subcontinent, to British colonies. Large Indian communities are found in South Africa, and smaller ones are present in Kenya, Tanzania, and some other southern and East African countries. The large Indian community in Uganda was expelled by the dictator Idi Amin in 1972, though many have since returned. The islands in the Indian Ocean are also populated primarily by people of Asian origin, often mixed with Africans and Europeans. The Malagasy people of Madagascar are anAustronesian people, but those along the coast are generally mixed with Bantu, Arab, Indian and European origins. Malay and Indian ancestries are also important components in the group of people known in South Africa as Cape Coloureds (people with origins in two or more races and continents). During the 20th century, small but economically important communities of Lebaneseand Chinese[70] have also developed in the larger coastal cities of West and East Africa, respectively.[82]

Languages

Main article: African languages
Map showing the distribution of the various language families of Africa.
By most estimates, well over a thousand languages (UNESCO has estimated around two thousand) are spoken in Africa.[83] Most are of African origin, though some are of European or Asian origin. Africa is the most multilingual continent in the world, and it is not rare for individuals to fluently speak not only multiple African languages, but one or more European ones as well. There are four major language families indigenous to Africa.
  • The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout the Horn of Africa, North Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia.
  • The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by Nilotic tribes in Chad, Ethiopia,Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, and northern Tanzania.
  • The Niger-Congo language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa and is probably the largest language family in the world in terms of different languages.
  • The Khoisan languages number about fifty and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 120,000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The Khoiand San peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.
Following the end of colonialism, nearly all African countries adopted official languages that originated outside the continent, although several countries also granted legal recognition to indigenous languages (such as Swahili, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa). In numerous countries, Englishand French (see African French) are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media.Arabic, Portuguese, Afrikaans and Malagasy are examples of languages that trace their origin to outside of Africa, and that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and private spheres.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Africa
Some[which?] aspects of traditional African cultures have become less practiced in recent years as a result of years of neglect and suppression by colonial and post-colonial regimes. There is now a resurgence in the attempts to rediscover and revalourise African traditional cultures, under such movements as the African Renaissance, led by Thabo Mbeki, Afrocentrism, led by a group of scholars, including Molefi Asante, as well as the increasing recognition of traditional spiritualism through decriminalization of Vodou and other forms of spirituality. In recent years, traditional African culture has become synonymous with rural poverty and subsistence farming.
Fasil Ghebbi in Ethiopia

Visual art and architecture

African art and architecture reflect the diversity of African cultures. The oldest existing examples of art from Africa are 82,000-year-old beads made from Nassarius shells that were found in theAterian levels at Grotte des Pigeons, Taforalt, Morocco.[citation needed] The Great Pyramid of Gizain Egypt was the world's tallest structure for 4,000 years, until the completion of Lincoln Cathedralaround the year 1300. The stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe are also noteworthy for their architecture, and the complexity of monolithic churches at Lalibela, Ethiopia, of which the Church of Saint George is representative.[citation needed]

Music and dance

Main article: Music of Africa
A young man playing the k'ra, a traditional instrument of Ethiopia
Egypt has long been a cultural focus of the Arab world, while remembrance of the rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, in particular West Africa, was transmitted through the Atlantic slave trade to modern samba, blues,jazz, reggae, hip hop, and rock. The 1950s through the 1970s saw a conglomeration of these various styles with the popularization of Afrobeat and Highlife music. Modern music of the continent includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and the dance rhythms of the musical genre of soukous, dominated by the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Indigenous musical and dance traditions of Africa are maintained by oral traditions, and they are distinct from the music and dance styles of North Africa and Southern Africa. Arab influences are visible in North African music and dance and, in Southern Africa, Western influences are apparent due to colonisation.

Sports

Fifty-three African countries have football (soccer) teams in the Confederation of African Football, while Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, and Ghana have advanced to the knockout stage of recent FIFA World Cups.South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup tournament, becoming the first African country to do so.
Cricket is popular in some African nations. South Africa and Zimbabwe have Test status, while Kenya is the leading non-test team in One-Day International cricket and has attained permanent One-Day International status. The three countries jointly hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Namibia is the other African country to have played in a World Cup. Morocco in northern Africa has also hosted the 2002 Morocco Cup, but the national team has never qualified for a major tournament. Rugby is a popular sport in South Africa.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Africa
Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs[84] and statistics on religious affiliation are difficult to come by since they are too sensitive a topic for governments with mixed populations.[85] According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Islam is the largest religion in Africa, followed by Christianity. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, 45% of the population are Muslims, 40% are Christians and less than 15% are non-religious or follow African religions. A small number of Africans are Hindu, Baha'i, or have beliefs from the Judaic tradition. Examples ofAfrican Jews are the Beta Israel, Lemba peoples and the Abayudaya of Eastern Uganda.

Territories and regions

Main articles: Regions of Africa and List of African countries and territories
The countries in this table are categorised according to the scheme for geographic subregions used by the United Nations, and data included are per sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly indicated.
Regions of Africa:     Northern Africa     Western Africa     Middle Africa     Eastern Africa     Southern Africa
 
 
Physical map of Africa
Satellite photo of Africa
Political map of Africa
Name of region[86] and
territory, with flag		Area
(km²)		Population
(2009 est) except where noted		Density
(per km²)		Capital
Eastern Africa:6,384,904316,053,65149.5
Burundi Burundi27,8308,988,091[87]322.9Bujumbura
Comoros Comoros2,170752,438[87]346.7Moroni
Djibouti Djibouti23,000516,055[87]22.4Djibouti
Eritrea Eritrea121,3205,647,168[87]46.5Asmara
Ethiopia Ethiopia1,127,12785,237,338[87]75.6Addis Ababa
Kenya Kenya582,65039,002,772[87]66.0Nairobi
Madagascar Madagascar587,04020,653,556[87]35.1Antananarivo
Malawi Malawi118,48014,268,711[87]120.4Lilongwe
Mauritius Mauritius2,0401,284,264[87]629.5Port Louis
Mayotte Mayotte (France)374223,765[87]489.7Mamoudzou
Mozambique Mozambique801,59021,669,278[87]27.0Maputo
Réunion Réunion (France)2,512743,981(2002)296.2Saint-Denis
Rwanda Rwanda26,33810,473,282[87]397.6Kigali
Seychelles Seychelles45587,476[87]192.2Victoria
Somalia Somalia637,6579,832,017[87]15.4Mogadishu
Tanzania Tanzania945,08741,048,532[87]43.3Dodoma
Uganda Uganda236,04032,369,558[87]137.1Kampala
Zambia Zambia752,61411,862,740[87]15.7Lusaka
Middle Africa:6,613,253121,585,75418.4
Angola Angola1,246,70012,799,293[87]10.3Luanda
Cameroon Cameroon475,44018,879,301[87]39.7Yaoundé
Central African Republic Central African Republic622,9844,511,488[87]7.2Bangui
Chad Chad1,284,00010,329,208[87]8.0N'Djamena
Republic of the Congo Congo342,0004,012,809[87]11.7Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of the Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo2,345,41068,692,542[87]29.2Kinshasa
Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea28,051633,441[87]22.6Malabo
Gabon Gabon267,6671,514,993[87]5.6Libreville
São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe1,001212,679[87]212.4São Tomé
Northern Africa:8,533,021211,087,62224.7
Algeria Algeria2,381,74034,178,188[87]14.3Algiers
Egypt Egypt[88]1,001,45083,082,869[87] total, Asia 1.4m82.9Cairo
Libya Libya1,759,5406,310,434[87]3.6Tripoli
Morocco Morocco446,55034,859,364[87]78.0Rabat
Sudan Sudan2,505,81041,087,825[87]16.4Khartoum
Tunisia Tunisia163,61010,486,339[87]64.1Tunis
Western Sahara Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic[89]266,000405,210[87]1.5El Aaiún
Spanish and Portuguese territories in Northern Africa:
Canary Islands Canary Islands (Spain)[90]7,4921,694,477(2001)226.2Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Ceuta Ceuta (Spain)[91]2071,505(2001)3,575.2—
Madeira Madeira Islands (Portugal)[92]797245,000(2001)307.4Funchal
Melilla Melilla (Spain)[93]1266,411(2001)5,534.2—
Southern Africa:2,693,41856,406,76220.9
Botswana Botswana600,3701,990,876[87]3.3Gaborone
Lesotho Lesotho30,3552,130,819[87]70.2Maseru
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe390,58011,392,629[87]29.1Harare
Namibia Namibia825,4182,108,665[87]2.6Windhoek
South Africa South Africa1,219,91249,052,489[87]40.2Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Pretoria[94]
Swaziland Swaziland17,3631,123,913[87]64.7Mbabane
Western Africa:6,144,013296,186,49248.2
Benin Benin112,6208,791,832[87]78.0Porto-Novo
Burkina Faso Burkina Faso274,20015,746,232[87]57.4Ouagadougou
Cape Verde Cape Verde4,033429,474[87]107.3Praia
Côte d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire322,46020,617,068[87]63.9Abidjan,[95] Yamoussoukro
The Gambia Gambia11,3001,782,893[87]157.7Banjul
Ghana Ghana239,46023,832,495[87]99.5Accra
Guinea Guinea245,85710,057,975[87]40.9Conakry
Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau36,1201,533,964[87]42.5Bissau
Liberia Liberia111,3703,441,790[87]30.9Monrovia
Mali Mali1,240,00012,666,987[87]10.2Bamako
Mauritania Mauritania1,030,7003,129,486[87]3.0Nouakchott
Niger Niger1,267,00015,306,252[87]12.1Niamey
Nigeria Nigeria923,768149,229,090[87]161.5Abuja
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (UK)4107,637[87]14.4Jamestown
Senegal Senegal196,19013,711,597[87]69.9Dakar
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone71,7406,440,053[87]89.9Freetown
Togo Togo56,7856,019,877[87]106.0Lomé
Africa Total30,368,6091,001,320,28133.0




































President of Nigeria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

President of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria
NigerianPresidentSeal.png
Seal of the President of Nigeria
Incumbent
Goodluck Jonathan
since 6 May 2010
ResidenceAso Rock Presidential Villa
AppointerActing president
Term lengthFour years, renewable once
Inaugural holderNnamdi Azikiwe
Formation1 October 1963
Flag of the Commander in Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces
Nigeria

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Nigeria
The President of Nigeria is the Head of State and head of the national executive. Officially styled President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. The current President of Nigeria is Goodluck Jonathan.

Contents

 [hide]

[edit]History

On October 1, 1960, Nigeria gained independence from Britain. An all-Nigerian Executive Council was headed by a Prime Minister, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. On November 16, 1960, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, became the first Governor-General of a Federation of three Regions of the North, East and West, with Lagos as the Federal Capital. Each of the Regions was headed by a Premier with a Governor as Ceremonial Head. On October 1, 1963, Nigeria became a Federal Republic and severed whatever ties were left with Britain. Nigeria decided, however, to remain in the British Commonwealth of Nations. The Governor-General's position was, therefore, re-designated as President.
In January of 1966, a group of army officers, led by General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, overthrew the central and regional governments, killed the prime minister, took control of the government, and General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was named Military Head of State.
In July 1966, a group of northern army officers revolted against the government, killed General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, and appointed the army chief of staff, General Yakubu Gowon as the head of the new military government.
In 1975, Gen. Yakubu Gowon was deposed and General Murtala Mohammed was the Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria until his assassination in 1976.
In 1976 Gen. Obasanjo was made head of state in a meeting of the Supreme Military Council. Keeping the chain of command established by Murtala Muhammed in place.
In 1979, Nigeria adopted a constitution that was modelled on the Constitution of the United States, with provision for a President, Senate, and House of Representatives.
In October 1979, after more than 13 years of military rule, Nigeria was returned to democratic rule. The National Party of Nigeria emerged victorious in the presidential election and AlhajiShehu Shagari was elected President.
December 31, 1983, the military overthrew the Second Republic. Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhariemerged as the Chairman of the Supreme Military Council (SMC), the new Head of State.
In August 1985, the Gen. Buhari government was peacefully overthrown by the then Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. Babangida became the President and chairman Armed Forces Ruling Council.
In 1993, General Babangida steps down in August and chooses interim government. Ernest Shonekanwas named as interim president. Gen. Sani Abacha seizes power from Shonekan in November 1993, he became the president and Chairman Provisional Ruling Council. On 8 June 1998, General Abacha dies at the presidential villa in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Maj. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar became the new president and Chairman Provisional Ruling Council.
In May 1999, Maj. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar steps down and the former military head of state Gen.Olusegun Obasanjo became the newly elected civilian president. Gen Obasanjo served two terms in office.
In May 2007, Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua was sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the 13th head of state of Nigeria. Yar'Adua died on 5 May 2010 in the Presidential villa, in Abuja, Nigeria.
On 6 May 2010 the Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the 14th head of state.

[edit]Functions of the President of Nigeria

The President has the powers entrusted by the Constitution and legislation, including those necessary to perform the functions of Head of State and head of the national executive.
The President is responsible for:
  • assenting to and signing Bills
  • referring a Bill back to the National Assembly for reconsideration of the Bill's constitutionality
  • referring a Bill to the Constitutional Court for a decision on the Bill's constitutionality
  • summoning the National Assembly, or Parliament to an extraordinary sitting to conduct special business
  • making any appointments that the Constitution or legislation requires the President to make, other than as head of the national executive
  • appointing commissions of inquiry
  • calling a national referendum in terms of an Act of Parliament
  • receiving and recognising foreign diplomatic and consular representatives
  • appointing ambassadors, plenipotentiaries, and diplomatic and consular representatives
  • pardoning or reprieving offenders and remitting any fines, penalties or forfeitures
  • conferring honours

[edit]Eligibility

A person shall be eligible for the office of President if he or she is a citizen of Nigeria, at least 40 years of age, is a member of a political partyand is sponsored by that political party. The constitution limits the President to only two terms of four years each in office.

[edit]Oath of office

The Constitution of Nigeria specifies an oath of office for the President of the federation. The oath is administered by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria or the person for the time being appointed to exercise the functions of that office:
“I do solemnly swear/affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I will discharge my duties to the best of my ability, faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the law, and always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well-being and prosperity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that I will strive to preserve the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy contained in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that I will not allow my personal interest to influence my official conduct or my official decisions; that I will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that I will abide by the Code of Conduct contained in the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that in all circumstances, I will do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will; that I will not directly or indirectly communicate or reveal to any person any matter which shall be brought under my consideration or shall become known to me as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, except as may be required for the due discharge of my duties as President; and that I will devote myself to the service and well-being of the people of Nigeria. So help me God.”

[edit]List of Heads of State Nigeria (1960-Present)

Main article: List of heads of state of Nigeria




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