Nigeria: Nation on Trial

In 1960, when Nigeria won its independence, it became at birth the world's most populous black state and Africa's biggest question mark. Held together in uneasy federation, the country numbered some 250 tribes and languages, three principal religions (Moslem. Christian, animist), and three big, traditionally hostile regions: the feudal, Moslem North, which claims half the entire population of Nigeria; the East, dominated by the astute, industrious Ibo tribes; and the West, richest and most advanced of all three, whose Yoruba tribesmen are Nigeria's most sophisticated citizens. As big as Texas and...

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