Nigeria

Core values & worldview

If you want to understand a Nigerian, start with the fact that Nigeria is less one nation than a meeting of many. A Yoruba woman from Ibadan, a Hausa man from Kano and an Igbo trader from Onitsha each belong to peoples with their own languages, kings or councils, histories and pride, older than Nigeria itself.^•

That history helps explain a few things you will often notice.

God first. For most Nigerians, Muslim or Christian, faith is not a private matter but woven through everyday speech (“God willing”, “Insha Allah”, “God dey”), business names, music and politics. Friday prayers and Sunday services are packed, and religious leaders carry great influence.^•

Respect for elders and family. Age and status matter. Younger people greet elders with deference (in Yoruba custom a man may prostrate and a woman kneel or curtsy), and calling older people “Auntie” or “Uncle” is normal even when they are not relatives. Extended family is a support system and an obligation: a successful person is expected to help siblings, cousins and their home town.^•

Education and achievement. Many Nigerians see education as the surest way out of poverty, an idea Obafemi Awolowo built into policy with free primary education in the West in the 1950s. Titles such as “Doctor”, “Engineer” or “Chief” are used with pride.^•

Words and stories. Nigerians love argument, proverbs and storytelling, and the country has produced some of Africa’s greatest writers: Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, Ben Okri, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Wole Soyinka, who in 1986 became the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.^•

Resilience and humour. Living with power cuts, fuel queues, inflation and unpredictable government has made many Nigerians remarkable improvisers. Nigerian humour, in comedy skits, music and on social media, is quick, loud and often aimed squarely at the powerful.^•

Daily life & customs

Much of life is shaped by the struggle with infrastructure: many households and businesses run generators because the national grid is unreliable, and people joke about “NEPA taking light”, after the old power authority. Traffic in Lagos, the “go-slow”, is legendary.^•

English is the official language, but Nigerian Pidgin, a creole spoken across the south, is the everyday lingua franca for tens of millions, and Hausa serves the same role in the north. Most people speak at least two or three languages.^•

Celebrations are big. Weddings, naming ceremonies, birthdays and funerals for elders can be enormous, especially Yoruba owambe parties, where families and guests wear matching cloth called aso ebi and “spray” money on dancers. Food is central: jollof rice, pounded yam and egusi soup, suya, pepper soup, and regional specialities.

Football unites the country: the Super Eagles’ matches empty the streets, and the 1996 Olympic gold in Atlanta is still remembered with joy. Religious festivals, Christmas, Easter, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha (Sallah), are national holidays, and Muslims and Christians often visit each other to share the celebration.

Wounds & sensitivities

Biafra. The civil war of 1967–70 is the deepest wound, especially for the Igbo, who lost hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than a million, to fighting and famine, and felt punished afterwards.^•

Colonialism and stolen heritage. The British conquest, the forced union of 1914 and the looting of treasures like the Benin Bronzes are sources of real anger, and museums’ slowness to return them is closely followed.^•

Insecurity. Boko Haram’s insurgency in the north-east, kidnapping gangs in the north-west and violence between farmers and herders in the Middle Belt have killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. Many families have lost someone or paid a ransom.^•

Police and the state. The #EndSARS protests of 2020 and the shooting at Lekki toll gate are raw, especially for young people, and the official denial of a massacre still angers many.^•

Stereotypes about fraud. Nigerians abroad are tired of being associated with “419” email scams, which they see as unfairly tarring hundreds of millions of hard-working people.^•

Modern attitudes

Proud but impatient. Most Nigerians love their country and its culture fiercely, but are scathing about its government. Inflation, the 2023 removal of the fuel subsidy, and a weak naira have made life hard for many families.^•

Japa. Since around 2020 a wave of doctors, nurses, tech workers and students has left for Britain, Canada and elsewhere, a trend known as japa (Yoruba for “to flee” or “run away”). It is debated as both a brain drain and a lifeline, since remittances from abroad support many families.^•

Socially conservative. Most Nigerians hold conservative views on family, gender roles and sexuality, shaped by both Christianity and Islam; same-sex relationships are criminalised under a 2014 federal law, and in the twelve northern Sharia states the penalties are harsher.^•

Young and connected. With a median age under twenty, Nigeria is one of the youngest countries in the world. Young Nigerians are prolific online, creative and entrepreneurial, and Lagos has become one of Africa’s leading tech start-up hubs.^•

Not all Nigerians are the same

North and south. The mostly Muslim north, with its emirates and Hausa as a common language, and the more Christian, more Western-educated south have long differed in wealth, schooling and outlook. These differences fuel the endless debates about which region “gets” the presidency.^•

The big three. Yoruba culture is famous for its monarchies, elaborate courtesy and vibrant parties, and its people are both Muslim and Christian, often in the same family. Igbo culture prizes individual achievement, trade and republican self-governance; the saying Igbo enwe eze, “the Igbo have no king”, is often quoted. Hausa-Fulani culture is shaped by Islam, the emirates and centuries of Saharan trade.^•

Minorities. Hundreds of smaller peoples, such as the Ijaw and Ogoni of the Delta, the Tiv and Berom of the Middle Belt, the Kanuri of Borno, and the Efik and Ibibio of the south-east, have their own identities and often feel squeezed between the big three.^•

Religion within regions. The north has large Christian communities, especially in the Middle Belt and southern Kaduna, and the south-west is about half Muslim. Not every northerner is Muslim, and not every southerner Christian.^•

Rich and poor, city and village. A Lagos tech founder and a farmer in rural Zamfara live in different worlds. The gap between the elite and the majority is enormous.^•

The diaspora. About 271,000 people in England and Wales were born in Nigeria in 2021, and there are large communities in the United States, Canada, Ireland and across Africa. British-Nigerians and Nigerian-Americans are prominent in medicine, law, business, sport, comedy and music, and many second-generation children are sent “home” to school or for long holidays.^•

Meeting someone

Conversation starters

• Food. Ask about jollof, and whether Nigerian jollof beats Ghana’s. You’ll get a passionate answer.
• Music and films. Afrobeats, Fela, Nollywood and the latest skit-makers are great openings.^•
  • Nollywood: The Creation of Nigerian Film Genres — Jonathan Haynes, University of Chicago Press (2016)
  • Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon — Michael E. Veal, Temple University Press (2000)
• Where they’re from. Ask about their home town, state and language; people are proud to explain their background.^•
  • A History of Nigeria — Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton, Cambridge University Press (2008)
• Football. The Super Eagles, and the English Premier League, which has a huge following in Nigeria.
• Family. Asking warmly after someone’s family is normal and appreciated.

Topics to approach carefully

• Biafra and ethnic rivalries. Let people share their own view; avoid ethnic jokes or stereotypes about any group.^•
  • Postcolonial Conflict and the Question of Genocide: The Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967–1970 — Lasse Heerten and A. Dirk Moses (eds.), Routledge (2018)
• Religion. Faith is deeply important; avoid mocking it, and don’t assume someone’s religion from their region or name.^•
  • 5 facts about religion in Nigeria — Pew Research Center (2025)
• Politics and corruption. Nigerians criticise their leaders freely, but may not appreciate an outsider doing it with scorn for the whole country.^•
  • Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know — John Campbell and Matthew T. Page, Oxford University Press (2018)
• Scams. Never joke about “Nigerian princes”.

Common misconceptions

• “Nigeria is one culture.” It is a country of hundreds of peoples, languages and traditions.^•
  • A History of Nigeria — Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton, Cambridge University Press (2008)
• “Africa is a country.” Nigerians know a great deal about the rest of Africa, and expect others to know Lagos from Nairobi.
• “Nigerians are all poor.” There is deep poverty, but also a large, highly educated middle class, world-class professionals and a booming creative economy.^•
  • Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know — John Campbell and Matthew T. Page, Oxford University Press (2018)
• “Northern Nigeria is all Boko Haram.” The insurgency is concentrated in the north-east, and its main victims are northern Muslims.^•
  • Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement — Alexander Thurston, Princeton University Press (2018)
• “Nigerian English is broken English.” Nigerian English and Pidgin are rich, expressive languages with their own rules and literature.^•
  • Nigeria — Encyclopaedia Britannica