Nigerians in the UK and Europe - Nigerian Community in Europe

By an act of the British Parliament, Nigeria became an independent country within the Commonwealth on October 1, 1960.

In 1963 Nigeria became a republic within the Commonwealth. The change in status called for no practical alteration of the constitutional system. The president, elected to a five-year term by a joint session of the parliament, replaced the crown as the symbol of national sovereignty and the British monarch as head of state. Nnamdi Azikiwe became the republic's first president.
Although the first postindependence parliamentary elections were held in December 1964, the nation's leadership in the several decades following independence was determined by coup, not by election, and by military, rather than civilian, government. One of the most important developments during the 1960s was the declaration of independence by the Eastern Region in 1967, followed by a 30-month civil war. In the face of increased sectarian violence, the Eastern Region's military governor, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was under pressure from Igbo (also seen as Ibo) officers to assert greater independence from the Federal Military Government (FMG). Ultimately, on May 30, 1967, Ojukwu proclaimed the independent Republic of Biafra, named after the Bight of Biafra. He cited as the principal cause for this action the government's inability to protect the lives of predominantly Igbo easterners and suggested its culpability in genocide.
Initially, the FMG launched "police measures" to restore the authority of Lagos in the Eastern Region, but soon full-scale civil war broke out. Finally, in January 1970 Biafran resistance collapsed, and the FMG reasserted its authority over the area. An estimated 1 to 3 million Nigerians died from hostilities, disease, and starvation during the civil war, and more than 3 million Igbo became refugees. The economy of the region was shattered. In several years, however, the state government achieved the rehabilitation of 70 percent of the industry incapacitated during the war. The federal government granted funds to cover the state's operating expenses for an interim period, and much of the war damage was repaired.