Nigeria (/naɪˈdʒɪəriə/ (About this soundlisten)), officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa, bordering Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, and Benin in the west. Its coast in the south is located on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The federation comprises 36 states and 1 Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Abuja, is located. The constitution defines Nigeria as a democratic secular state.[7] Nigeria has been home to a number of ancient and indigenous kingdoms and states over the millennia. The modern state originated from British colonial rule beginning in the 19th century, and took its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorateand Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914 by Lord Fredrick Lugard. The British set up administrative and legal structures while practicing indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms, Nigeria became a formally independent federation in 1960. It experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970. It thereafter alternated between democratically elected civilian governments and military dictatorships until it achieved a stable democracy in 1999, with the 2011 presidential election considered the first to be reasonably free and fair.[8]

Nigeria is often referred to as the “Giant of Africa”, owing to its large population and economy.[9] With 206 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa[10][11][12] and the seventh most populous country in the world. Nigeria has the third-largest youth population in the world, after India and China, with more than 90 million of its population under the age of eighteen.[13][14] Nigeria is the world’s 20th largest economy as of 2015, worth more than $500 billion and $1 trillion in terms of nominal GDP and purchasing power parity, respectively.[15][16] The 2013 debt-to-GDP ratio was 11 percent.[17]

Nigeria is viewed as a multinational state as it is inhabited by 250 ethnic groups,[18] of which the three largest are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba; these ethnic groups speak over 500 distinct languages and are identified with a wide variety of cultures.[18][19][20][21] The official language of Nigeria is English, chosen to facilitate linguistic unity at the national level. Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Christians, who live mostly in the southern part of the country, and Muslims, who live mostly in the north. A minority of the population practice religions indigenous to Nigeria, such as those native to the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities.

Nigeria is considered to be an emerging market by the World Bank;[22] it has been identified as a regional power on the African continent,[23][24][25] a middle power in international affairs,[26][27][28][29] and has also been identified as an emerging global power.[30][31][32] However, its Human Development Index ranks 158th in the world. Nigeria is a member of the MINT group of countries, which are widely seen as the globe’s next “BRIC-like” economies. It is also listed among the “Next Eleven” economies set to become among the biggest in the world. Nigeria is a founding member of the African Union and a member of many other international organizations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and OPEC.

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