Word: semiarid
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...last week, it teetered on the brink of civil war. The cause of its problems is the age-old struggle between three dominant tribal groups: the ambitious Ibos of the oil-rich Eastern Region; the ebullient Yorubas of the cocoa-growing West; the feudal Hausas and Fulani of the semiarid "Holy North." Their differences are basic and, unfortunately, all too typical of the tribal divisions that plague other African nations. The Northerners are rigid Moslems, suspicious of outsiders, wary of progress, ruled by reactionary emirs whose palaces are made of mud and whose law is adamantine...
With victory in their grasp, the Northerners' first idea was to secede and form their own independent state. After a flurry of long-distance telephone conferences, however, and heavy diplomatic pressure from the West, they were persuaded that the backward, semiarid North would be hard put to go it alone without the natural resources of the South and the skills of the Southerners. Agreeing to one more try at nationhood, they named a 31-year-old lieutenant colonel, Yakubu Gowon, as Nigeria's new supreme commander...