ethnic groups wanting independence from a country they held little allegiance to and, even today, Nigeria suffers from ongoing ethnic, tribal and religious tensions that regularly spill out into open conflict. Despite this, after the formation of a new constitution in 1999 ushering in the first civilian government after sixteen years of military rule, the elections of 2007 proved to be the first transition of power from one civilian government to another without the military since independence.

Despite significant oil wealth most of which bypasses the population into the hands of wealthy oil companies resulting in the establishment of a group called MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) which is committed to taking the oil industry back for the local Nigerian people and using revenues to help clear up the environmental disaster in the Delta, Nigeria remains one of the poorest countries in the world with 64% of its population living under the poverty line. Nigeria is in 152nd place out of 186 countries and territories in 2013 when ranked in terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge and the living standards of a country with a life expectancy of around 47years.

HIV/AIDS affects three out of every hundred citizens and there are nearly ten million orphans in the country. Malnutrition affects just under a third of all children, one in five of whom die before their fifth birthday; the reason in part for this is not just poverty but because only around 1% of Nigerian children are immunised against basic childhood illness, and, due to corruption and incompetence, the Nigerian government spends less per capita than virtually any other country in Africa on healthcare.