Malieng Diana

Buisha Glodie
Vijayakumar Vithuja
Commonwealth countries :Nigeria

Nigeria, or in his formal name Federal Republic of Nigeria, regroups

206.1 millions inhabitants (in 2020), his capital is Abuja and the national day is on the 1st october
which represent his independence (in 1960).

It begins with Europeans who dicovered the country in the 15 century. Far away, the british
expanded trade with the nigeria interior. Centuries after, in 1851, Lagos, the biggest city of Nigeria
was occupied by British forces and formally annexed by british in 1865. Then, in 1875 the British
George Goldie take in his possession a small commercial home in the river niger and create a new
commercial empire named United African company 4 years later.
Shortly afterwards, in 1886, Nigeria was put under a protectorate by the UK, and that is when it was
named Nigeria, by his river's name niger. Futhermore, the british empire also created the Southern
Nigeria protectorate and the northern nigeria protectorate and it became one of the British Empire
colony in 1914. Finally the british period rule end by an independence movement the october 1st of
1960. Therefore the queen Elizabeth 2 was the monarch of Nigeria and the head of the state and
since the independance nigeria was a member of the commonwealth and still is today.

Speaking of the present, it exists currents links with the UK. Indeed after the brexit, the UK wants
to reinforce his relatioship with Nigeria. So both countries signed cooperation agreements after a
visit of the Nigeria's president Buhari and the first minister of the UK Theresa May,one on the
economy and a second one on a partnership around a security subject. Moreover the UK was the 6th
commercial partenair of the Nigeria in 2018. In this way, the UK wants to strengthen their
economic link and explore more trade opportunities. The UK will continue to cooperate with
nigeria in its fight against organized crime, human trafficking and corruption. And, on the other
side, Nigeria is ready to strengthen their link and cooperate in order to also fight against corruption
and reduce poverty.

Finally, there is a fun fact about Nigeria; even though English is the official language of Nigeria,
the people there speak over 500 other languages as well. Pidgin, which is a combination of english
and native language, is not a offical language. But it i widely spoken in Nigeria.