Nigeria is a federal republic consisting of thirty-six states and a federal capital located in Abuja. The country lies on the west coast of the African continent and has a land mass of 923,768 square kilometers (356,700 square miles), making it slightly larger than California. It is bordered to the north by the Republic of Niger, to the south by the Atlantic Ocean, to the east by the Federal Republic of Cameroon, and to the west by the Republic of Benin. On the country's northeast border is Lake Chad, which also extends into the Republic of Niger and Chad and touches the northernmost part of Cameroon. Nigeria's location between the equator and Tropics of Cancer places it entirely within the tropical zone, but climatic conditions vary from equatorial on the coast, to tropical in the middle, to arid in the north.

The World Bank estimated Nigeria's population in 1990 at 119 million...