HISTORY OF NIGERIA

FORMER CAPITAL LAGOS NOW ABUJA

Nigerian Flag

Map of Present Nigeria

Flag of British Colonial Nigeria Ruled by the British AD 1900-1960

STATES AND DIVISIONS

STATES, CAPITALS & LINKS Nigeria now consists of 36 states, but not all maps you find today will have all the new states (most of the other ones I've seen on the net show 30, but that is out of date). The capital of Nigeria used to be Lagos until 1991, and is still referred to as the capital in some of the documentation you will find. The current capital is Abuja (also called Federal Capital Territory), which is not really a state, but takes portions of a few different states (at that time, the states were Niger, Kogi, and Plateau...but the section of Plateau taken is now part of Nassarawa). As you can see from the map above, it is centrally located in the nation, whereas Lagos is at one corner of the nation.

FEELING HOT HOT HOT

CLIMATE With Nigeria being between the equator and the Tropic of Cancer, it gets pretty hot. Specifically, there are 2 main 'temperature regions'. The tropical region in the South usually has temperatures around 90F and the subtropical regions in the North have temperatures between 60F and 100F. The temperature there is actually measured in Centigrade. There are 2 main seasons. One of the seasons is called rainy season, so named because we get a lot of rain, usually lasts from about May until September in the North, and about March to November in the South. The other one is called the dry season, so named because we do not get as much rain, and that lasts the remainder of the year. In the South, there is also a period around December till January called the Harmattan season, during which it gets cold and dry, sometimes cold enough to need sweaters (okay Minnesotans and Canadians, stop laughing).

CULTURE FROM VARIOUS STATES

Carving

Fishing

Traditional

NOTABLE NIGERIANS