Nigeria
Nigeria is a country in west Africa. It has a population of 154,729,000, which is more than any other country in Africa. The capital of Nigeria is Abuja. Nigeria is known for being a large country, and the most populated in Africa. From the 1500s to the 1800s, many people from Nigeria were kidnapped and turned into slaves by Europeans, and they were taken to the Americas. From 1901 to 1960, the United Kingdom ruled Nigeria. However, by 1960 the people wanted independence very much, and Britain finally let them have it. For some time after this, Nigeria was a dictatorship, where the leaders stayed in control even if many people disliked them. However, in 1999, Nigeria became a democracy, where people choose their leaders. After that, Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba Christian from the south, became President. In 2007, Umaru Yar'Adua, a Hausa Muslim, was elected to be the next President. Yar'Adua died in May, 2009. Goodluck Jonathan, the vice president, then became president.
Nigeria had a big war called the Biafran War
In Nigeria, there are almost equal amounts of Muslims and Christians. Most of the Christians live in the south, and most of the Muslims live in the north. Sometimes, like in the Nigerian Civil War (when the Igbo people of Biafra fought to become independent from Nigeria), the two groups fight each other based on religion.
Nigeria produces a large amount of oil, and some fighting has been going on because many people want a share of the oil profits. This fighting has been happening in the area called the Niger Delta, where the Niger River flows into the Atlantic Ocean.
The largest city in Nigeria is Lagos. Nigeria has both grasslands and rainforests, and can get very hot, because it is close to the Equator.
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