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Nigeria has one official language which is English, as a result of the British colonial rule over the nation. Nevertheless, it is not spoken as a first language in the entire country because other languages have been around for over a thousand years making them the major languages in terms of numbers of native speakers.
Some groups have alleged that there is deliberate misreporting in order to give selected ethnicities numerical superiority (as in the case of Nigeria's Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo peoples). [1] [2] [3] A 2009 genetic clustering study, which genotyped 1327 polymorphic markers in various African populations, identified six ancestral clusters.
The history of the indigenous African peoples spans thousands of years and includes a complex variety of cultures, languages, and political systems. Indigenous African cultures have existed since ancient times, with some of the earliest evidence of human life on the continent coming from stone tools and rock art dating back hundreds of thousands of years.
Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Muslims, who live mostly in the north part of the country, and Christians, who live mostly in the south; indigenous religions, such as those native to the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities, are in the minority. [20] Nigeria is a regional power in Africa and a middle power in international affairs.
Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. [22] The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British journalist Flora Shaw , who later married Baron Frederick Lugard , a British colonial administrator ...
There are over 520 native languages spoken in Nigeria. [1] [2] [3] The official language is English, [4] [5] which was the language of Colonial Nigeria.The English-based creole Nigerian Pidgin – first used by the British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century [6] – is the most common lingua franca, spoken by over 60 million people.
This led to the establishment of new factories, and industry in south-eastern Nigeria, making the Igbo people some of the wealthiest ethnic groups in Nigeria. Many Igbo people eventually took government positions, [ 139 ] although many were engaged in private business. [ 140 ]
The Nigerian national football team, [72] nicknamed the "Super Eagles", is the national team of Nigeria, run by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). According to the FIFA World Rankings , Nigeria ranks 42nd and holds the sixth-highest place among the African nations.