Origin of the conflict
As in most African countries, there are several conflicts in Nigeria which are all interrelated. When Nigeria officially gained its independence from the United Kingdom on the 1st of October 1960, there were numerous ethnicities, several different religions and huge amounts of natural resources left within the arbitrarily drawn borders of the largest country in Africa. With 50% of its people being Islamic, Nigeria is also the largest Muslim country of the continent. In the South, Nigerians are mostly Christian, and they account for 40% of the population; the other 10% adheres to various indigenous beliefs. Furthermore, there are a total of 250 different ethnic groups in Nigeria, the largest ones are the Haussa and Fulani (29%), the Yoruba (21%) and the Igbo (18%). The Haussa and Fulani live mostly in the Islamic North of Nigeria, where they have the Shari law, whilst the government has implemented English Common Law in the Christian South (Igbo) and West (Yoruba). Thus, Nigeria knows three types of legislation; English Common Law, Sharia Law and Tribal Law. Finally, Nigeria is also a victim of the so called ‘resource curse’, which theorizes that countries which contain great mineral wealth, are seldom wealthy. Nigeria is the greatest gas and oil producing country in Africa.¹ Apart from the problem that hardly any of the Nigerians get their hands on these riches, there are also many conflicts  over the possession of oil and gas producing regions in Nigeria.

Actors involved
Apart from various ethnicities and religions, there are also several different active political parties and pressure groups in Nigeria. One of the most important groups at this moment is the MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta). The MEND still gets a lot of publicity because of its attacks on drilling infrastructure and kidnappings of personnel of Multinationals. Another notorious group is MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People). Especially the non-violent environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, was a well known member of MOSOP. Moreover, the importance of the presence of foreign multinationals in Nigeria can not be underestimated. Apart from sporadically attracting the people’s anger they also have- to some degree- influence on Nigerian domestic politics, if not directly then certainly indirectly. Social unrest and separatist tendencies are harshly repressed out of fear that Multinationals might come to see Nigeria as an unreliable partner to do business with. Furthermore, Nigeria has a very active expatriate community which monitors the developments in its homeland closely. Last but not least, supranational organisations such as the United Nations and the European Union can have an impact on Nigeria’s politics. Of course, Nigeria is also a member of several organisations such as the UN, the Commonwealth (from which it was threatened to be expelled after the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa), the African Union and the OPEC (Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries).

Historic events²
Nigeria became independent on the 1st of October 1960. Nnamdi Azikiwe had already published a timeframe for the independence of Nigeria in 1943, he proceeded to found the Igbo party NCNC (National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroon’s). In 1949 and in 1951 the Hausa-Fulani and the Yoruba peoples followed with the NPC (Northern Peoples Congress) and AG (Action Group). In 1959 the first free elections were held, and a coalition of NPC and NCNC became the first government of Nigeria. Corruption always has been - and still is - a great obstacle for good governance in Nigeria, in spite of many promises made by presidential candidates to root it out. Because political parties and its leaders are primarily tied to their ethnic groups, they tend to give preferential treatment to that group, or even suppress peoples from other ethnic groups. The other groups, in the most extreme case, will respond with a coup. In 1966 the Igbo overthrew the Hausa government, to which the Hausa immediately responded with another coup. The Igbo people fled to the Eastern part of the country, which rebel leader Chukwuemeka Ojukwu declared the Republic of Biafra. The conflict escalated into the bloody Biafran war³, partially because there were huge amounts of oil found on Biafran territory. The Republic ceased to exist after a civil war that lasted three years and caused the deaths of at least 2 million civilians. (The Humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières was formed as a direct response to Bernard Kouchners dissatisfaction with the political dependency of Humanitarian organisations in the Biafran war.) MASSOB (Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra) is still campaigning in a peaceful manner for the recognition of the state of Biafra. However, its leaders are regularly arrested and detained on charges of treason⁴. After the Biafran war, Nigeria kept struggling with political unrest and military coups. Under the rule of Moshood Abiola and President Sani Abacha much repression exsisted; Abiola and Abacha deposed themselves of political rivals. One of these opponents was the non-violent environmental activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa⁵ who campaigned especially against the oil companies Shell and BP. His execution in 1995 brought about much international indignation.⁶ After President Abacha’s death in 1999, there were free elections held in Nigeria for the first time in many years, which were won by Olusegun Obasanjo. Now, Umaru Yar’Adua is the President of Nigeria; both he and Obasanjo have announced to battle corruption and the violation of human rights in Nigeria, up till now without much success. In 2008 Human Rights Watch called Nigeria a ‘fake democracy’ calling onto Yar’Adua to improve the situation.⁷ There are, however, some improvements in Nigeria. Firstly, some may argue that a ‘fake democracy’ is always better than a harsh dictatorship; it’s a step forward. Expatriate, well-educated Nigerians who convene in internet-societies, may well be able to have an impact on developments in Nigeria. Besides, Nigeria possesses enough raw materials to become a wealthy country; good governance and an end to corruption would be the key to equal and fair distribution of wealth. Nigeria is already a military superpower on the African continent; it plays an important role in the African Union and in Peacekeeping missions such as in Sudan. It has recently managed to resolve a conflict over the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula with Cameroon in a peaceful manner after a ruling of the International Court of Justice. Since Nigeria has far greater military capabilities than Cameroon, this is a break through. On June 19th 2008 the Nigerian ambassador to Switzerland, Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi⁸ became president of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Other interesting web pages:
www.nigeria.gov.ng
www.globalissues.org/article/86/nigeria-and-oil
www.africanews.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1064557.stm

1 (CIA factbook) www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook
2 For a full timeline: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1067695.stm
3 Documentary on Youtube about the Biafran War: http://nl.youtube.com/results?search_query=biafran+war&search_type=&aq=0&oq=biafran+w
4 http://massob.biafranet.com/
5 http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/
6 http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6580000/newsid_6584600/6584617.stm?bw=nb&mp=wm&news=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=2
7 http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/10/08/nigeria-politics-mired-corruption-and-violence 
8 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27088&Cr=human%20rights&Cr1=council