Nigerians Strike

Nigeria would be a could case study of the effects of colonialism, of religious conflict, of the effects of oil in Africa.  

Nigerians are taking to the streets to protest the Nigerian government on January 9, 2012.  The government, under the direction of President Jonathan, removed the fuel subsidies for the country.  This was considered to be one of the few benefits of living in Nigeria.

On average, Nigerians make $2 a day.  The price of fuel has now doubled as a result of ending fuel subsidies--the price of fuel was 40 cents a day but now its 80 cents a day.

Nigeria is the world's 10th largest oil producer (according to the CIA) but very little of the money that oil brings in is felt by/given back to the Nigerian residents.  They actually have to import their oil because they don't have the equipment to convert crude oil to usable fuel.

Nigeria is dominated by the Muslim religion.  Nigeria has a history of religious tensions between Christians and Muslims.

The country had a civil war in the late 1960's where 3 million died.

History of Nigeria (leading up until the civil war):

Britain colonized Nigeria and carved out a very heterogeneous groups of ethnicities in West Africa to form Nigeria.  Britain left Nigeria in 1960.

While the British were ruling, the British allowed the Northern Emirs to have greater independence (as the British only ruled indirectly through the Emirs).  Christian missionaries were not allowed into Northern Nigeria.  As a result, Northern Nigeria became an underdeveloped region, strongly Muslim and with low literacy rates.

Conversely, the British ruled directly in the South.  The South became more westernized and Christianized.

It was the South in the end that greatly wanted independence.  The North feared that if Britain left, the South would dominate the North.

There were a series of coups and counter coups.

Oil was discovered in the southeastern part of Nigeria.  While the North was not super eager before to hold on to the South, the North now wanted to hold a firm grip on the South.

And so on and so forth!  (Look up the rest leading up to the civil war on Wikipedia)

I found the info on fuel subsidies from this CNN article.  The article also has a video clip of the striking.

All the history info was from Wikipedia.