Nigeria as a political entity came into being by the 1914 Amalgamation of the Northern Protectorate and Southern Protectorate of Nigeria by Lord Lugard.
The name Nigeria was taken from the River Niger running through Nigeria. This name was coined by Flora Shaw, the future wife of Baron Lugard, a British colonial administrator, in the late 19th century.(1)
Nigeria has 3 Major Ethnic grouping: Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba and numerous tribal groups. Historically, Nigeria ethnic cultures have run a parallel historical, political and social development; wherever the cultures have merged or met it was normally through commerce or war.
The major tribes Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba with numerous tribal groups are all eternally conscious and supremely guarded of their culture, habit and history. Many of the tribes are openly suspicions of the other.
This was the background to the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorate of Nigeria by Lord Lugard and the British Imperial Office.
Without an adequate melding of the divergent views, convergence of developmental goals and synchronization of aspiration for nationhood, the different peoples of Nigeria was lumped into one country; Nigeria.
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