Nigeria becomes independent

Nigeria became independent on October 1, 1960, with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as prime minister and Nnamdi Azikiwe as the governor-general, who became president when Nigeria turned into a republic in 1963. The country had been created by British rule, which in 1914 joined the northern and southern protectorates under Frederick Lugard.¹²

The new state brought together many peoples, mostly Hausa-Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the southwest and Igbo in the southeast, with hundreds of other groups. Under a federal system, three regions each had a dominant party and the north held the largest population. Nationalists such as Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello had pressed for self-rule since the 1940s, and Britain negotiated a gradual transfer of power through constitutions in the 1950s. Oil had been found at Oloibiri in 1956, and would later dominate the economy.¹

Independence did not bring stability. Rivalry among regions, disputed elections and a coup in January 1966 were followed by another coup and the Biafran war of 1967 to 1970. Nigeria remained under military rule for much of the period until 1999. The first republic fell with the January 1966 coup, led mostly by Igbo junior officers, in which Balewa and regional leaders such as Ahmadu Bello were killed. A countercoup in July 1966 and attacks on Igbo people in the north fed the secession of Biafra.¹