Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa is situated in west Africa with a coast line on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Benin to its west, Chad and Cameroon to its east and Niger to the north.

Following a series of moves towards greater autonomy, Nigeria finally gained its independence from the British on the 1st October 1960 and became the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1963.

As ever, political instability ensued with coups and counter coups many of which were due to various ethnic groups wanting independence from a country they held little allegiance to and, even today, Nigeria suffers from ongoing ethnic, tribal and religious tensions that regularly spill out into open conflict.

Despite this, after the formation of a new constitution in 1999 ushering in the first civilian government after sixteen years of military rule, the elections of 2007 proved to be the first transition of power from one civilian government to another without the military since independence.

Despite significant oil wealth, Nigeria remains one of the poorest twenty countries in the world with 64% of its population living under the poverty line. Malnutrition affects just under a third of all children, one in five of whom die before their fifth birthday, HIV/AIDS affects three out of every hundred citizens and there are nearly ten million orphans in the country out of a total population of some 158 million ~ making it the eighth most populous nation in the world. Life expectancy is around 47years.

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