Culture of Nigeria
The Yoruba make up about 21% of the country's population (estimated to be over 225 million) and are predominantly Christians and Muslims on equal footing, with a notable presence of traditionalists.
In education, dress and taste, the Hausa people and their counterparts the Fulani have become a significant part of the Islamic world; this said influence still remains until the current day.
[35] They have monarchs, are known for celebrating the Hawan Sallah festival,[36] and are also followers of the religious teachings of Sheikh Usman dan Fodio.
It is believed that the Igbo people originated in an area that is about 100 miles north of their current location at the confluence of the Niger and Benue Rivers.
The Igbo people share linguistic ties with their neighbours the Bini, Igala, and Idoma, with whom it is believed they were closely related until five to six thousand years ago.
'Odinana', on the contrary, is a code of life, handed down from Chukwu, God the Creator, to Eri, the patriarch of the Igbo race, to prevent chaos and confusion.
Owing to the affinity they have with water, a significant number of the Ijaw people are discovered as migrant fishermen in camps that are as far west as Sierra Leone and as far east as Gabon.
They are concentrated in the southwestern section of Nigeria, much smaller and scattered groups of Yoruba people live in Benin and northern Togo and they are numbered to be more than 20 million at the turn of the 21st century.
[49] The Yoruba people are believed to have migrated from the east to their present lands west of the lower Niger River more than a millennium ago.
The Yoruba people eventually formed many kingdoms of various sizes, each of which was centered on a capital city or town and was ruled by a hereditary king known as an Oba.
Their towns eventually became more and more populated and grew into the present-day cities of Oyo, Ile-Ife, Ilesha, Ibadan, Ilorin, Ijebu-Ode, Ikere-Ekiti, and others.
[52] Oyo and the other kingdoms declined in the late 18th and 19th centuries owing to disputes among minor Yoruba rulers and invasions by the Fon of Dahomey (now Benin Republic) and the Muslim Fulani.
[53] Ever since the country's earliest centralization - under the Nokites at a time contemporaneous to the birth of Jesus Christ - Nigeria has been ruled by a class of titled potentates that are known as chiefs.
[54] Led by the Nigerian traditional rulers (i.e. monarchs who have received definite authority from the official government and are recognized by the laws of Nigeria),[55] the chiefs come in various ranks and are of varied kinds - some monarchs are so powerful that they influence political and religious life outside their immediate domains (the Sultan of Sokoto and the Ooni of Ife, for example), while in contrast many local families around the country install their eldest members as titled chiefs in order for them to provide them with what is an essentially titular leadership.
[56] Although chiefs have few official powers today, they are widely respected, and prominent monarchs are often courted to endorse politicians during elections in the hopes of them conferring legitimacy to their campaigns by way of doing so.
Successful Nigerians, such as businessmen and the said politicians, typically themselves aspire to the holding of chieftaincies, and the monarchs' control of the honours system that provides them serves as an important royal asset.
These include Femi Osofisan,[65] whose first published novel, Kolera Kolej, was produced in 1975; Ben Okri, whose first work, The Famished Road, was published in 1991, and Buchi Emecheta, who wrote stories drawn from her personal experiences of gender inequity that promote viewing women through a single prism of the ability to marry and have children.
Helon Habila, Sefi Atta, Flora Nwapa, Iquo Diana Abasi Eke,[66] Zaynab Alkali and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,[67] among others, are notable Nigerian authors whose works are read widely within and outside the country.
[69][70] Because of the movies, western influences such as music, casual dressing and methods of speaking are to be found all across Nigeria, even in the highly conservative north of the country.
[74] Nigerian food offers a rich blend of traditionally African carbohydrates such as yam and cassava as well as the vegetable soups with which they are often served.
[75] Praised by Nigerians for the strength it gives, garri is "the number one staple carbohydrate food item in Nigeria",[76] a powdered cassava grain that can be readily eaten as a meal and is quite inexpensive.
Other examples of their traditional dishes are eba, pounded yam, iyan, fufu and soups like okra, ogbono and egusi.
[87] The men wear buba (long shirt), sokoto (baggy trousers), agbada (flowing robe with wide sleeves) and fila (a hat).
[91] It is one of the earliest works from Nigeria put into writing and entails several genres of indigenous knowledge production communicated to its adherents verbally.
[96] Beyond the lecture halls and laboratories, Nigerian university campuses come alive with a vibrant array of extracurricular activities and social events such as sports tournaments and talent shows to cultural festivals and academic symposiums, rag days.
[103][104] Students are often at the forefront of movements advocating for social justice, political reform, and educational equity through protests, demonstrations, and advocacy campaigns.
[107] For university students, this ceremonial event holds significant cultural and social importance within the Nigerian higher education system, symbolizing the completion of undergraduate studies and the transition to the next phase of life.
[108] Despite the numerous challenges facing Nigerian universities, including inadequate funding, violent cult-related confraternities, infrastructure deficiencies, and the occasional strikes, students navigate these obstacles with a different array of resolve, driven by their thirst for a better future.
[109][110][111] Furthermore, the cultural diversity of Nigeria, with its myriad ethnic groups, languages, and traditions, is vividly reflected on university campuses.
[112] Students from diverse backgrounds come together, sharing their unique perspectives and experiences, and enriching the academic and social fabric of the Nigerian university community.
