HISTORY: TOWARDS DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS
After 15 years of dictatorship, at the end of February 1999, presidential elections were held, which saw the winner, despite the denunciation of irregularities made by the defeated Olu Faele and confirmed by international observers, the former general Olusegun Obasanjo, former head of state at the end from the seventies; following the restoration of political freedoms, Nigeria was readmitted to the Commonwealth. The end of the military dictatorship caused the deep cultural differences between the north and south of the country to re-emerge, sharpened with the introduction in many regions of the north, of the shari’ah: the federal government struggled to handle the bloody riots following this decision. Obasanjo was reconfirmed in the presidential elections of 2003 despite allegations of fraud made by international observers and his main challenger, Muhammadu Buhari, who declared that he did not accept the outcome of the votes. The violence continued, especially in the oil area of the Niger Delta, where in 2005 there were numerous guerrilla attacks against oil plants. In the presidential elections of April 2007, Olusegun Obasanjo, unable to run for a third time, claimed Umaru Yar’adua, who won with about 70% of the votes: also on this occasion the opposition denounced fraud and contested the results. In October 2009, after years of attacks on the oil areas of the Niger Delta, the MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of Niger) declared a ceasefire (which lasted until January 2010), after the central government granted an amnesty in August. In November of the same year, President Yar’adua was hospitalized for health problems (he died in Abuja in May 2010) and the parliament appointed the vice-president Jonathan Goodluck, interim head of state (February 2010). Meanwhile, since the beginning of the year there have been serious clashes between the Christian and Muslim ethnic groups. In 2011, the presidential elections won by after the central government granted an amnesty in August. In November of the same year, President Yar’adua was hospitalized for health problems (he died in Abuja in May 2010) and the parliament appointed the vice-president Jonathan Goodluck, interim head of state (February 2010). Meanwhile, since the beginning of the year there have been serious clashes between the Christian and Muslim ethnic groups. In 2011, the presidential elections won by after the central government granted an amnesty in August. In November of the same year, President Yar’adua was hospitalized for health problems (he died in Abuja in May 2010) and the parliament appointed the vice-president Jonathan Goodluck, interim head of state (February 2010). Meanwhile, since the beginning of the year there have been serious clashes between the Christian and Muslim ethnic groups. In 2011, the presidential elections won by J. Goodluck who took office in May. In the following years the country suffered continuous attacks by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram which caused more than a thousand deaths in 2013 and continued in 2014, even with spectacular mass kidnappings, while the counteracting activity of the government and the militias supported by it proved to be ineffective, allowing Boko Haram to conquer territory in the north of the country. Muhammadu Buhari was elected in the presidential elections of 2015.
CULTURE
Contrary to what happens in the rest of the African continent, the ancient urban tradition limits, in Nigeria, the importance of the forms of rural settlement, which also take on, in the different populated areas, peculiar characters, often clearly differentiated. Just over half of the population lives in rural areas, concentrated in the Yoruba region and in the northern areas inhabited by the Hausa and Kanuri. Settlements in E most often consist of small farm cores not far from each other in which there is a strict age-based hierarchy. According to thefreegeography, characteristic are the Yoruba villages, consisting of rectangular huts made with palm leaves, and tightly agglomerated, a sign of a good Paleourban civilization that has followed in the large cities of the country where the Yoruba, or at least their descendants, Ibadan, Lagos). The houses of the northern villages, on the other hand, are mainly built with mud and stones. Holidays and anniversaries are usually linked to religion; in fact, in northern Nigeria, on the occasion of the end of Ramadan and Tabaski (Islamic celebrations), it is possible to attend evocative and very crowded parties. Linked to the Sokoto River is the Argungu Fishing and Cultural Festival, held every year in February, an event also linked to the Islamic world and which sees fishermen as protagonists. In Oshun, NE of Ibadan, at the end of August, the Oshun Festival is held, where you can watch spectacular dances, with traditional music and sacrifices. Particularly interesting are the two sites designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site: the first (registered in 1999) is the Sukur area, near the Mandara mountains: a concrete expression of an ancient society and its spiritual and material culture, it consists of the chief’s palace on a hill overlooking the village below, the terraced fields and their sacred symbols, in which including the remains of a primitive iron industry. The other site, instead (2005), is the sanctuary dedicated to Osun, the goddess of fertility, located in the immediate vicinity of the city of Oshogbo. Nestled in one of Nigeria’s last stretches of primary forest, it is littered with artifacts, statues and ritual objects. which includes the remains of a primitive iron industry. The other site, instead (2005), is the sanctuary dedicated to Osun, the goddess of fertility, located in the immediate vicinity of the city of Oshogbo. Nestled in one of Nigeria’s last stretches of primary forest, it is littered with artifacts, statues and ritual objects. which includes the remains of a primitive iron industry. The other site, instead (2005), is the sanctuary dedicated to Osun, the goddess of fertility, located in the immediate vicinity of the city of Oshogbo. Nestled in one of Nigeria’s last stretches of primary forest, it is littered with artifacts, statues and ritual objects.
