Nigeria Facts

Nigeria’s name has a history of its own.

British journalist Flora Shaw first used the name Nigeria in 1897, from the Niger River that runs through the country. The river’s own name comes from the Tuareg name of the river, egerew-n-igerewen, given to it by the local inhabitants before the 19th century. However, it still remains unclear when and who first used the name Niger to refer to the river, which also eventually shared its name with the country of Nigeria.

Chappal Waddi stands as the highest point in Nigeria.

With a height of 2.42 km above sea level, Chappal Waddi isn’t just the highest point in Nigeria, it also makes it the 3rd tallest peak in Africa. Only Mount Cameroon in the country of the same name, and Emi Koussi in Chad, stand taller than Chappal Waddi. Chappal Waddi stands as part of the Bamenda-Adamawa-Mandara mountain chain that runs across not just in Nigeria, but also neighboring Cameroon. The mountain stands in Nigeria’s Taraba state, not far from the border with Cameroon, on the Mambilla Plateau. It also stands as part of the Gashaka Gumti Forest Reserve, as well as the Gashaka-Gumti National Park.

Nigeria has a mixed climate.

The southernmost part of the country has a tropical rainforest climate, marked by up to two meters of rain per year. However, most of the country has a savanna climate, receiving on average around one meter of rain per year. The state of the savannah shifts from south to north, with Southern Nigeria’s savanna dominated by tall grass with scattered groves of trees.

Central Nigeria, in contrast, usually only sees short grass on the savanna, with the trees also growing shorter. Finally, the savannah in Northeastern Nigeria appears only as patches of grass breaking up a sandy landscape. In fact, the northernmost part of the country counts as part of the Sahara Desert and receives only, at most, 500 mm of rain per year.The country also has a rich biodiversity.

Mangroves flourish along the coasts of Southern Nigeria, with virgin rainforest stretching far inland. This region also counts as the native home of the drill primate, shared with the border areas of neighboring Cameroon. The area around Calabar City in Nigeria’s Cross River state also has the world’s most diverse population of butterflies.

Nigeria’s savanna also features rich populations of flowering plants, such as moneyworts and rattlepods, among others. Humans can even eat some of them, though, most get harvested as fodder for livestock. The spurge family of plants also thrives in Nigeria, where it has a medicinal reputation for diseases such as gastroenteritis and malaria, among others.

The Nigerian environment faces many threats today.

Desertification driven by global warming actually has the Sahara Desert slowly but steadily expanding into Northern Nigeria. Overuse of water also threatens Lake Chad in the country’s northeast, made worse by shifting weather patterns. Similarly driven by climate change, this threatens the lake’s water sources and could cause it to dry up. Even in Southern Nigeria, far from the Sahara Desert, land development and deforestation have heavily impacted the rainforests. European colonization also introduced invasive species into the country, threatening the native ecology.

That said, scientists today still remain unsure how many invasive species have actually succeeded in Nigeria. The oil industry has also contaminated the Niger River’s delta, made worse by other forms of water pollution from the country’s industries. Similarly, the country’s mining industry has introduced lead waste and other heavy metals into local water supplies.