NigeriaArticle Free Pass
A general overview is Harold D. Nelson (ed.), Nigeria, 4th ed. (1982). Reuben K. Udo, Geographical Regions of Nigeria (1970); K.M. Barbour et al., Nigeria in Maps (1982); and K.M. Buchanan and J.C. Pugh, Land and People in Nigeria (1955, reissued 1966), are standard geographic texts. Akin L. Mabogunje, Urbanization in Nigeria (1968), contains detailed studies of Lagos and Ibadan. W.T.W. Morgan, Nigeria (1983), is a good survey of the physical and cultural environment. Toyin Falola and S.A. Olanrewaju (eds.), Transport Systems in Nigeria (1986), presents information on the transport network; and Toyin Falola and Tola Pearce (eds.), Child Health in Nigeria: The Impact of a Depressed Economy (1994), is valuable on the health conditions. Ekpo Eyo, Two Thousand Years, Nigerian Art (1977), traces the development of this aspect of Nigeria’s culture.
Accounts of the economy up to World War II can be found in Daryll Forde and Richenda Scott, The Native Economies of Nigeria (1964); and Gerald K. Helleiner, Peasant Agriculture, Government, and Economic Growth in Nigeria (1966); while Susan M. Martin, Palm Oil and Protest: An Economic History of the Ngwa Region, South-eastern Nigeria, 1800–1980 (1988), continues the story to the oil boom. Two studies that cover the post-1940 era are R.O. Ekundare, An Economic History of Nigeria (1973); and Toyin Falola, Decolonization and Development Planning in Nigeria (1996); with Tom Forrest, Politics and Economic Development (1993), continuing the discussion into the early 1990s. Also useful are Scott R. Pearson, Petroleum and the Nigerian Economy (1970); Sayre P. Schatz, Nigerian Capitalism (1977); and, in the wider perspective of political economy, Gavin Williams (ed.), Nigeria (1976); and I. William Zartman (ed.), The Political Economy of Nigeria (1983).
On politics, James S. Coleman, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (1958); and Richard L. Sklar, Nigerian Political Parties (1963), are dated but remain indispensable. Also useful are K.W.J. Post, The Nigerian Federal Election of 1959 (1963); John P. Mackintosh (ed.), Nigerian Government and Politics: Prelude to the Revolution (1966); and Larry Diamond, Class, Ethnicity, and Democracy in Nigeria: The Failure of the First Republic (1988). Constitutional development can be followed in B.O. Nwabueze, A Constitutional History of Nigeria (1982). Studies of public administration include Billy Dudley, An Introduction to Nigerian Government and Politics (1982); and ’Ladipo Adamolekun, Politics and Administration in Nigeria (1986). Solomon Williams Obotetukudo, The Inaugural Addresses and Ascension Speeches of Nigerian Elected and Non-elected Presidents and Prime Minister, 1960–2010 (2011), is a useful collection that showcases the rhetoric of the military and civilian governments that ruled during Nigeria’s first 50 years of independence.
General overviews include Toyin Falola, The History of Nigeria (1999); Michael Crowder, The Story of Nigeria, 4th ed. rev. (1978); Obaro Ikime (ed.), Groundwork of Nigerian History (1980); Elizabeth Isichei, A History of Nigeria (1983); and Toyin Falola et al., History of Nigeria, 3 vol. (1989–92). Regional and special studies include R.A. Adeleye, Power and Diplomacy in Northern Nigeria, 1804–1906: The Sokoto Caliphate and Its Enemies (1971); E.A. Ayandele, The Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria, 1842–1914 (1966); A.E. Afigbo, The Warrant Chiefs: Indirect Rule in Southeastern Nigeria, 1891–1929 (1972); and G.O. Olusanya, The Second World War and Politics in Nigeria, 1939–1953 (1973).
The colonial period is analyzed in Toyin Falola (ed.), Nigeria and Britain: Exploitation or Development (1987). The Biafran war is covered in John de St. Jorre, The Nigerian Civil War (1972). On the Second Republic, Richard A. Joseph, Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria (1987); Toyin Falola and Julius Ihonvbere, The Rise & Fall of Nigeria’s Second Republic, 1979–84 (1985); Anthony Kirk-Greene and Douglas Rimmer, Nigeria Since 1970 (1981); William D. Graf, The Nigerian State (1988); Stephen Wright, Nigeria: Struggle for Stability and Status (1998); and Eghosa E. Osaghae, Nigeria Since Independence: Crippled Giant (1998), are very informative, as is A. Oyewole, Historical Dictionary of Nigeria (1987).
More recent history is adequately covered in Toyin Falola and Pat Williams, Religious Impact on the Nation State: The Nigerian Predicament (1995); Toyin Falola and Hassan Matthew Kukah, Religious Militancy and Self Assertion: Islam and Politics in Nigeria (1996); and Toyin Falola, Religious Violence in Nigeria: The Crisis of Religious Politics and Secular Ideologies (1998).