### GENERAL OVERVIEW :
*
circa 800 BC - Jos plateau settled by Nok - a neolithic and iron age civilisation.
* circa 11th century onwards - Formation of city states, kingdoms and empires, including Hausa kingdoms and Borno dynasty in north, Oyo and Benin kingdoms in south.
* 1472 - Portuguese navigators reach Nigerian coast.
* 16-18th centuries - Slave trade: Millions of Nigerians are forcibly sent to the Americas.
* 1809 - Islamic Sokoto caliphate is founded in north.
* 1830s-1886 - Civil wars plague Yorubaland in the south.
* 1850s - British establish presence around Lagos.
* 1861-1914 - Britain consolidates its hold over what it calls the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, governs through local leaders.
* 1922 - Part of former German colony Kamerun is added to Nigeria under League of Nations mandate.
* 1960 - Independence, with Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa leading a coalition government.
* 1962-63 - Controversial census fuels regional and ethnic tensions.
* 1966 January - Mr Balewa killed in coup. Maj-Gen Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi forms military government.
* 1966 July - General Ironsi killed in counter-coup, replaced by Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon.
* 1967 - Three eastern states secede as the Republic of Biafra, sparking bloody civil war.
* 1970 - Biafran leaders surrender.
* 1975 - General Gowon overthrown by Brigadier Murtala Ramat Mohammed, who begins process of moving federal capital to Abuja.
Obasanjo - first time round
* 1976 - General Mohammed assassinated in failed coup attempt. Replaced by his deputy, Lt-Gene Olusegun Obasanjo, who helps introduce US-style presidential constitution.
* 1979 - Elections bring Alhaji Shehu Shagari to power.
* 1983 January - The government expels more than one million foreigners, mostly Ghanaians, saying they had overstayed their visas and were taking jobs from Nigerians.
* 1983 August-September - President Shagari re-elected amid accusations of irregularities.
* 1983 December - Maj-Gen Muhammad Buhari seizes power in bloodless coup.
* 1985 - Ibrahim Babangida seizes power in bloodless coup, curtails political activity.
* 1993 June - Military annuls elections when preliminary results show victory by Chief Moshood Abiola.
* 1993 August - Power transferred to Interim National Government.
Abacha years
* 1993 November - Gen Sani Abacha seizes power, suppresses opposition.
* 1994 - Moshood Abiola arrested after proclaiming himself president.
* 1995 - Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer and campaigner against oil industry damage to his Ogoni homeland, is executed following a hasty trial. In protest, European Union imposes sanctions until 1998, Commonwealth suspends Nigeria's membership until 1998.
* 1998 - Gen Sani Abacha dies and is succeeded by Maj-Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar. Moshood Abiola dies in custody a month later.
* 1999 - Parliamentary and presidential elections. Olusegun Obasanjo sworn in as president.
* 2000 - Adoption of Islamic Sharia law by several northern states in the face of opposition from Christians. Tension over the issue results in hundreds of deaths in clashes between Christians and Muslims.
* 2001 - Tribal war in Benue State, in eastern-central Nigeria, displaces thousands of people. Troops sent to quash the fighting kill more than 200 unarmed civilians, apparently in retaliation for the abduction and murder of 19 soldiers.
Ethnic violence
* 2002 February - Some 100 people are killed in Lagos in clashes between Hausas from mainly-Islamic north and Yorubas from predominantly-Christian southwest.
* 2002 November - More than 200 people die in four days of rioting stoked by Muslim fury over the planned Miss World beauty pageant in Kaduna in December. The event is relocated to Britain.
* 2003 12 April - First legislative elections since end of military rule in 1999. Polling marked by delays, allegations of ballot-rigging. President Obasanjo's People's Democratic Party wins parliamentary majority.
Obasanjo re-elected
* 2003 19 April - First civilian-run presidential elections since end of military rule. Olusegun Obasanjo elected for second term with more than 60% of vote. Opposition parties reject result. EU poll observers cite "serious irregularities".
* 2003 September - Nigeria's first satellite, NigeriaSat-1, launched by Russian rocket.
* 2004 May - State of emergency is declared in the central Plateau State after more than 200 Muslims are killed in Yelwa in attacks by Christian militia; revenge attacks are launched by Muslim youths in Kano.
Trouble in the south
* 2004 August-September - Deadly clashes between gangs in oil city of Port Harcourt prompts strong crackdown by troops. Rights group Amnesty International cites death toll of 500, authorities say about 20 died.
* 2006 January onwards - Militants in the Niger Delta attack pipelines and other oil facilities and kidnap foreign oil workers. The rebels demand more control over the region's oil wealth.
* 2006 February - More than 100 people are killed when religious violence flares in mainly-Muslim towns in the north and in the southern city of Onitsha.
* 2006 April - Helped by record oil prices, Nigeria becomes the first African nation to pay off its debt to the Paris Club of rich lenders, which had written off two-thirds of the $30bn debt the previous year.
Bakassi deal
* 2006 August - Nigeria agrees to cede sovereignty over the disputed Bakassi peninsula to neighbouring Cameroon under the terms of a 2002 International Court of Justice ruling. Transfer takes place in 2008.
* 2007 April - Umaru Yar'Adua of the ruling People's Democratic Party wins the presidential election.
* 2008 September - Militants in the Niger Delta step up their attacks on oil installations, in response to what they describe as unprovoked attacks by the military on their bases.
Boko Haram uprising
* 2009 July - Hundreds die in northeastern Nigeria after the Boko Haram Islamist movement launches a campaign of violence in a bid to have Sharia law imposed on the entire country. Security forces storm Boko Haram's stronghold and kill the movement's leader.
Government frees the leader of the Niger Delta militant group Mend, Henry Okah, after he accepts an amnesty offer.
* 2010 May - President Umaru Yar'Adua dies after a long illness. Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, already acting in Yar'Adua's stead, succeeds him.
* 2010 December - Christmas Eve bomb attacks near central city of Jos kill at least 80 people. Attacks claimed by Islamist sect Boko Haram spark clashes between Christians and Muslims. Some 200 killed in reprisal attacks.
* 2011 March - Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan wins presidential elections.
* 2011 August - Suicide bomb attack on UN headquarters in Abuja kills 23 people. Boko Haram claims responsibility.
* 2011 December - Christmas Day bomb attacks by Boko Haram on churches kill about 40 people. President Jonathan declares state of emergency to contain violence by Boko Haram.
* 2012 January - More than 100 killed in single day of co-ordinated bombings and shootings in Kano, shortly after Boko Haram tells Christians to quit the north.
* 2013 May - Government declares state of emergency in three northern states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa and sends in troops to combat Boko Haram.
* 2013 September - Boko Haram murder more than 150 people in roadside attacks in the northeast. Separately, security forces fight Boko Haram insurgents in the capital Abuja.
* 2014 April - Boko Haram kidnaps more than 200 girls from a boarding school in northern town of Chibok, in an incident that draws major national and international outrage.
* 2014 November - Boko Haram launches a series of attacks in northeastern Nigeria, capturing several towns near Lake Chad and running raids into neighbouring Chad and Cameroon in early 2015. It switches allegiance from al-Qaeda to the Islamic State group.
* 2015 February-March - Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger form military coalition and push Boko Haram out of all towns back into Sambisa Forest.
President Buhari elected
* 2015 March - Muhammadu Buhari wins the presidential election, becoming the first opposition candidate to do so in Nigeria's history.
* 2016 June - Naira currency floated in attempt to stave off financial crisis caused by low oil prices.
* 2016 November - Niger Delta Avengers rebels bomb three oil pipelines in attempt to renew southern insurgency.
* 2017 January - Scores die as Nigerian air force accidentally bombs refugee camp rather than Boko Haram redoubt in Rann on Cameroon border.
Nigerian navy sends ships as part of regional force to oblige The Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh to step down after he loses election.
* 2017 May - More than 80 of the schoolgirls who were kidnapped in Chibok are freed in a prisoner swap with the Islamist group Boko Haram.
Nigeria became a sovereign nation in October 1960 and a Republic in 1963. Since then till May 29, 1999, the reign of government has been between the Civilians and the Military.
The first Military Coup d'etat in the country's political history was in 1966, when some military officers forcefully took over government from the elected civilian government. The coup d'etat
began on January 15, 1966, when mutinous Nigerian soldiers led by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu
and Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna,
killed 22 people including the Prime Minister of Nigeria, many senior politicians, many senior Army officers (including their wives), and sentinels on protective duty. The coup plotters attacked the cities of Kaduna, Ibadan, and Lagos while also blockading the Niger and Benue River within a two-day span of time before the coup plotters were subdued. The General Officer Commanding, of the Nigerian Army,Johnson - Aguiyi - Ironsi
then used the coup as a pretext to annex power, ending Nigeria's nascent democracy. Though the military justified their action on the coup by alleging that the civilian government was corrupt.
The Nigerian civil war, better known as the better known as the Biafran's war broke out on the 6th of July 1967, and ended on the 15th of January 1970. It was a war fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra . Biafra represented nationalist aspirations of the Igbo people, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the Northern-dominated federal government. The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded Britain's formal decolonisation of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included a military coup, a counter coup, and persecution of igbo living in Northern Nigeria. Control over oil production in the Niger Delta played a vital strategic role
* MAJOR EVENTS IN NIGERIA BETWEEN 1970 AND 1979 :
* General Gowon 1967-1975
* Generals Murtala Muhamed and Olusegun Obasanjo ran Nigeria and altered the constitution again, creating 19 federal states.
* 1970 (January 15): The Biafran War came to an end, leaving nearly two million people dead.
* 1971 (April 2): Nigeria changed from driving on the right hand side of the road to the left.
* 1973 (May): Government establishes the National Youth Service Corps Scheme and introduces compulsory one year service for all graduates of Nigerian universities.
* 1974: General Gowon reneged on a promise to restore civilian rule in 1976.
* 1974: Gowon announces indefinite delay in trasition plan.
* 1975 (October): Gowon was overthrown in a coup, on the anniversary of his ninth year in office, by General Murtala Mohammed. Murtala rolls out transition plan to civil rule due to terminate in 1979.
* 1976 (February 13): Murtala Mohammed was gunned down, in an abortive coup attempt, on his way to work from his residence.
* 1976 (February 14): General Murtala Mohammed was succeeded by General Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo pledges to keep to Murtala's transition agenda.
* 1976 (September 2): The Universal Primary Education Scheme (UPE) is introduced. This was to make education free and compulsory in the country.
* 1978: Ban on political parties was lifted
* 1979 (October 1): General Obasanjo handed over to Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Shagari (Excutive President of Nigeria). Five parties competed for the presidency, and Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) won.
* 1979 (October 1) -1983 (December 31): Second Republic of Nigeria under Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).
* THE BUHARI COUP :
The second military era was preceded by a civilian regime, the Shagari Administration,whose advent in October 1979 was welcomed by most Nigerians, despite inter-party recriminations over the presidential elections.
Nevertheless, the euphoria was short-lived, by mid-1982 much of the economic, social and political turbulence that characterised the First Republic had returned. These included intra and inter-party rivalry, bitterness and conflict, evident in the formation, first of an NPN , the National Party of Nigeria/ NPP the Nigerian Peoples' Party alliance,and later on of a UPN Unity Party of Nigeria/NPPalliance. These culminated in large-scale bitterness, violence and vandalism that characterised the national elections of 1983.
Besides, the Nigerian economy had so deteriorated that food and other imports, including traditional staples like palm oil and rice already high,.accentuated. All this was in spite of an expensive Green Revolution Programme sponsored by government. To salvage the economy, the governmentuimposed stringent austerity measures and contemplated a IMF loan from the International Monetary Fund, IMF.
Rancorous preparations for the 1983 elections,rising agitation for more states particularly by the majority ethnic groups previously opposed to state creation, and an alleged coup plot sponsored by a disgruntled Borno businessman, Alhaji Z. B.Mandara, increased the air of political uncertainty. Other social ills included corruption, unemployment,high cost of living, rising incidence of armed robbery, and violent ethnic and religious riots and disturbances in Kano, Maiduguri and Modakeke. The military struck again in December, 1983.
The Buhari Regime, 1984 - 1985: The military regime headed by Major-General Buhari consistedof senior military officers such as Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon, Brigadier 1. B. Babangida and Major General Domkat Bali - all of the Supreme Military Council, SMC. The Administration's many decrees, military tribunals and emphasis on discipline soon won for it the characterisation as "the first true military dictatorship, albeit benevolent" that Nigeria ever experienced. As in 1966, the military take-over had considerable initial public support, particularly following revelations of abysmal corruption by public officers, many of whom were arrested and detained.
The regime set about recovering ill-gotten wealth from politicians and other public officers through special military tribunals that it set up. It also sought to cleanse the nation's aegean stables of corruption and immorality by instituting a "War Against lndiscipline'',WAI, campaign to fight laziness, lateness, disorderliness, hoarding and examination malpractices and to inculcate habits of cleanliness, order, patriotism and nationalism in the citizenry. To a considerable extent these aims were realised. Hence, "WAI" became an important legacy of the Buhari Administration. Nevertheless, the various new decrees carrying long prison terms or the death penalty for "miscellaneous offenses" or"economic sabotage," including examination malpractice, counterfeiting and drug and currency trafficking, met with criticism in some quarters as being too drastic.
Attempts to revamp the nation's economy met with serious constraints, particularly dwindling revenue from oil and tremendous burden of re-paying the nation's mounting internal and external debts. Government's economic recovery measures included a currency change early in 1984 which involved prolonged border closure, wage freeze, cut-back on government spending, and other "tough medicine."
Although purposeful, these measures achieved only moderate success. In October, 1984, General Buhari himself declared that the government was"to all intents and purposes bankrupt." However,apparently conceding to public opinion, Buhari steadfastly refused to obtain an IMF loan which would entail devaluation of the naira.
The stringent economic measures applied bythe government led to large-scale retrenchment ofpublic servants; students' unrest in tertiary institutions against the re-introduction of fees and withdrawal of food subsidy; and increased unemployment. Gradually, the Buhari Administration appeared to wear an inhuman and insensitive face.The last straw in the regime's worsening human rights record was the passage of Decree No. 4.This sought to ensure that journalists reported"truthfully" and that public officers were not maligned by the press. However, the decree was widely seen as government's attempt to muzzle the press. The conviction and imprisonment of two journalists of The Guardian, Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson, and the imposition of a N50,000 fine on The Guardian's publishers under this Decree, increased fears of government's intention to gag the Press. The activities of the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Security Organisation (NSO)in harassing radical intellectuals and other opponents or critics of the Government, side by side with the numerous harsh decrees carrying severe penalties, doomed the Buhari regime. It was overthrown on August 27, 1985 in a military coup.
* THE BABANGIDA COUP :
Administration 1985 - 1993:
An administration headed by Major-General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida set about to restore basic human rights and to revamp the economy. Babangida, until then the Army Chief of Staff, had been a member of the Buhari's Supreme Military Council, but had become alienated.
Of the tasks that faced the new administration,those of human rights, the economy and governance were perhaps the most serious. Conscious of public alienation by Buhari's human rights abuses, the Babangida administration rode to popularity by seeming to redress the abuses. It immediately repealed Decree No. 4 on newspaper censorship,and freed all detained journalists. It also curtailed some of the powers and excesses of the NSO,which it replaced with a new body, the State Security Service, the SSS. It set a date, 1990, for Nigeria's return to civilian rule ,which was laterchanged to 1992 ; and it made the first step in this journey by creating the Political Bureau in January1986. The Bureau subsequently organised a nation-wide debate on the form of, and the transition to, civilian government (Kraus, 1989: 235).The Transition Programme, formally inaugurated in July 1987, was drawn mostly from the recommendations of the Political Bureau. The programme was to be completed by the end of 1992when an elected civilian government would takeover from the military.
Several notable developments intended tosteer the transition on course occurred late in 1987.They were: the establishment of the Mass Mobilisation for Economic Recovery, Self Reliance and Social Justice (MAMSER) in August 1987; the creation of two additional States, Akwa lbom and Katsina, on September 23, 1987 intended to furtherenhance Nigeria's Federal System; and the setting up of Constitution Review Committee (CRC) and the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in September 1987. In December 1987, Local Government elections were held on non-party basis(Uya, 1992: 36 - 37).
Further milestones in the Transition Programme were reached in the next several years.They included the submission of a report and Draft Constitution by the CRC in March 1988; the part election and part nomination of the Constituent Assembly which subsequently met in Abuja and, in April 1989, submitted a Report and a Draft constitution. Soon afterwards, the AFRC lifted the five-year ban on political activities. Several burning issues featured in the political and constitutional debates throughout 1988 and 1989. They were the idea of rotatory presidency and attempts to introduce a Federal Sharia Appeal Court into the Constitution.The AFRC, however, intervened in the end to maintain the status quo in the case of the Sharia controversy.
Following the lifting of the ban on politics,approximately forty political organisations werefounded throughout the country. Of these, NECrecommended thirteen to the AFRC for registration.But even these were subsequently disqualified anddissolved by the AFRC as unsuitable. The AFRC then proceeded to establish two new political parties for the nation, viz: the Social Democratic Party(SDP), and the National Republican Convention(NRC), on the principle that one was "a little to theleft," and the other was "a little to the right," to maintain an ideological balance. The two parties were to be national in outlook and organisation, and politicians imbued with the high ethos which government sought to instill in the people. Accordingly, somecategories of persons were banned for life or for specific periods from participating in the unfolding politics, for reasons which included previous criminal records, and their currently occupying sensitive public positions. The heightened political activities,however, received a severe jolt on April 22, 1990 when an army Major, Gideon Okar, and some soldiers attempted a military coup d'etat which was quickly crushed. Undaunted, the two political parities held their conventions during the followingmonth. In December 1990, Local Government elections followed. State Assembly and (Sovernorshipelections followed in December 1991 and, inJanuary 1992, the elected civilian governors ofNigeria's then thirty states were sworn in. Thus,Nigeria became governed in the form of a diarchy a situation suggested earlier on in 1972 by Nigeria'selder Statesman, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.
The Presidential election, intended to finally usher in the Third Republic, was scheduled forDecember 5, 1992. It was, however, preceded bypolitical events that were no less significant or portentous. Decree No. 53 of 1992, for example,stripped the National Assembly of most of the powers granted it by the 1989 constitution, including the power to legislate or discuss and pass revenue bills. Then late in October 1992, the AFRC cancelled the presidential primaries held by the two parties in the previous month on grounds of gross election malpractices. The 23 presidential aspirants who had contested in the primaries were also disqualified and banned from further political participation. Those banned included Chief Olu Falae and Major-General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua (rtd) of the SDP, and Mallam Adamu Ciroma and Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi of the NRC, all front runners in the presidential primaries.
A review of the electoral process and regulations instituted by the AFRC led to the emergenceof 250 presidential aspirants by February 1993,including new political stalwarts, like Chief M.K.O.Abiola, Alhaji Ali-Monguno, General Yakubu Gowon(rtd), Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu and Alhaji BabaGana Kingibe. The final Presidential Elections,including the main election scheduled for June 12,1993, were to be conducted under the so-called"Option A4" System. The terminal date for military rule was also fixed for August 27, 1993.
The story of the election that eventually tookplace on June 12, 1993 and the annulment of the victory supposedly won overwhelmingly by ChiefM.K.O. Abiola cannot be recounted in any detail here. Suffice it to say that it was annulled and from then on, Nigeria's political stability and unity suffered severe blows that became very hard to contain. In its immediate effect, the annulment intensified public outcry and pressure for Babangida to relinnuish power which he reluctantly did on August 26, 1993 by "stepping aside" and handing over to the Interim National Government chosen by him and headed by Chief E. Shonekan.
The condition of acute political uncertainty wentside by side with grave economic decline. The.bases of economic policy were the Fifth National Development Plan (1986 - 1990), and the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) offered as an alternative to IMF Loan. SAP sought to achieve sustained self-reliant growth and to end high budget and balance of payments deficits. It also aimed to reduce dependence on imports and oil, reduce nonproductive public sector investments, and stimulateprivate sector activity through "privatisation and commercialisation" of State Corporations andParastatals, initiated by Decree 25 of 1988 (Kraus,1989:236). The measures to achieve these objectives included devaluation of the naira and attracting foreign investment by liberalising existing indigenisation policies. Others were raising higher revenues, and reducing state intervention, expenditures, and subsidies particularly on petrol, intendedpartly to placate the IMF.
As in previous reforms, these efforts weredaunted by the general air of political instability and uncertainty, corruption, dwindling oil revenue, a backward agricultural sector, a high inflation rate reckoned at eighty per cent in July 1993, and excruciating external debt estimated at $27 billion by October 1993.
Excepting some activation of primary production and exports, especially of cocoa, the consequences of the nation's economic course and, by implication, of SAP, were dire and ratifying. Among them were mass poverty, misery and general social malaise partly epitomised by anti-poverty protests, riots and strikes across the country;acute food shortages; collapse of infrastructure and of businesses, including banks; abandoned capital projects; inability of government to pay worker's salaries for months on end; and rising crime rate particularly of drug trafficking, armed robbery, and" (alias "419") for which Nigeria and Nigerians became notorious internationally and were shunned by many foreign investors and businessmen as high risks. According to a prevailing parlance, SAP had sapped life out of Nigeria and most Nigerians.
And, rather than alleviate these conditions,other aspects of government's domestic and foreignpolicies tended to exacerbate them. This was trueof the return of the Babangida regime to the policyof repressing the Press, its critics, human rightsspokesmen and organisations and radical intellectuals. At the foreign policy level was Nigeria's military intervention in Liberia and Sierra Leone through the ECOMOG (ECOWAS Monitoring Group). Although purposeful, those interventions further drained Nigeria's wealth. Moreover, by setting up the puny ING, Babangida laid the basis for the future rise of Nigeria's most monstrous dictator,General Sani Abacha.
The Sani Abacha Administration, 1993 1998: We shall pass over the ING (August November, 1993) headed by Ernest Shonekan, aformer head of UAC of Nigeria, Pie. Declared illegalby the Courts, the ING also lacked respectability,credibility, resources and resolve to solve thenation's many ills. It was shoved aside in a palace coup on November 17, 1993 by Sani Abacha, its Defence Secretary (and close associate of General Babangida), who established a new military government, under the Provisional Ruling Council (PRC) as the highest policy making organ of Government.
What followed under Abacha were five years ofunbridled dictatorship, economic mismanagement,gross human rights abuses and virtually a negationof government. Aiming from the outset to perpetuate his rule, Abacha first dissolved all the elected State and Federal Legislatures and sacked the governors. He then re-enacted the tortuous and wasteful process of transition to civil rule including the formation of new political parties, the fashioning of anew constitution (1995), election of new Local Government Councils, State and Federal Legislatures and Governors and, finally, the unprecedented, forced adoption of himself as the sole presidential candidate by the five government approved political parties.
On the foreign scene, the Abacha regime virtually isolated Nigeria from her traditional friends,especially in North America, Europe and Australia.Some of these countries clamped sanctions on Nigeria much to her economic hurt. Abacha's sudden death in June 1998, seen by many Nigerians as an "act of divine intervention,"and the death of Abiola shortly thereafter, effectively helped to pave the way for a return to civil rule.
Under Abacha's successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, Nigerians, now thoroughly tired of, and disillusioned with, the endless transition that the Babangida and Abacha regimes had foisted on them, co-operated to return the country speedily to civilian rule. Within a year, new political parties were formed, a Constitution (1999) was promulgated, and elections were held into Local Government Councils, State and Federal Legislatures, and to select the Governors, their Deputies, the Presidentand Vice President. The latter posts were won by General Obasanjo and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar respectively. Thus, on May 29, 1999, Nigeria returned, once more, to full democratic governance.
Now that Nigeria
circa 800 BC - Jos plateau settled by Nok - a neolithic and iron age civilisation.
circa 11th century onwards - Formation of city states, kingdoms and empires, including Hausa kingdoms and Borno dynasty in north, Oyo and Benin kingdoms in south.
1472 - Portuguese navigators reach Nigerian coast.
16-18th centuries - Slave trade: Millions of Nigerians are forcibly sent to the Americas.
1809 - Islamic Sokoto caliphate is founded in north.
1830s-1886 - Civil wars plague Yorubaland in the south.
1850s - British establish presence around Lagos.
1861-1914 - Britain consolidates its hold over what it calls the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, governs through local leaders.
1922 - Part of former German colony Kamerun is added to Nigeria under League of Nations mandate.
1960 - Independence, with Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa leading a coalition government.
1962-63 - Controversial census fuels regional and ethnic tensions.
1966 January - Mr Balewa killed in coup. Maj-Gen Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi forms military government.
1966 July - General Ironsi killed in counter-coup, replaced by Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon.
1967 - Three eastern states secede as the Republic of Biafra, sparking bloody civil war.
1970 - Biafran leaders surrender.
1975 - General Gowon overthrown by Brigadier Murtala Ramat Mohammed, who begins process of moving federal capital to Abuja.
Obasanjo - first time round
1976 - General Mohammed assassinated in failed coup attempt. Replaced by his deputy, Lt-Gene Olusegun Obasanjo, who helps introduce US-style presidential constitution.
1979 - Elections bring Alhaji Shehu Shagari to power.
1983 January - The government expels more than one million foreigners, mostly Ghanaians, saying they had overstayed their visas and were taking jobs from Nigerians.
1983 August-September - President Shagari re-elected amid accusations of irregularities.
1983 December - Maj-Gen Muhammad Buhari seizes power in bloodless coup.
1985 - Ibrahim Babangida seizes power in bloodless coup, curtails political activity.
1993 June - Military annuls elections when preliminary results show victory by Chief Moshood Abiola.
1993 August - Power transferred to Interim National Government.
Abacha years
1993 November - Gen Sani Abacha seizes power, suppresses opposition.
1994 - Moshood Abiola arrested after proclaiming himself president.
1995 - Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer and campaigner against oil industry damage to his Ogoni homeland, is executed following a hasty trial. In protest, European Union imposes sanctions until 1998, Commonwealth suspends Nigeria's membership until 1998.
1998 - Gen Sani Abacha dies and is succeeded by Maj-Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar. Moshood Abiola dies in custody a month later.
1999 - Parliamentary and presidential elections. Olusegun Obasanjo sworn in as president.
2000 - Adoption of Islamic Sharia law by several northern states in the face of opposition from Christians. Tension over the issue results in hundreds of deaths in clashes between Christians and Muslims.
2001 - Tribal war in Benue State, in eastern-central Nigeria, displaces thousands of people. Troops sent to quash the fighting kill more than 200 unarmed civilians, apparently in retaliation for the abduction and murder of 19 soldiers.
Ethnic violence
2002 February - Some 100 people are killed in Lagos in clashes between Hausas from mainly-Islamic north and Yorubas from predominantly-Christian southwest.
2002 November - More than 200 people die in four days of rioting stoked by Muslim fury over the planned Miss World beauty pageant in Kaduna in December. The event is relocated to Britain.
2003 12 April - First legislative elections since end of military rule in 1999. Polling marked by delays, allegations of ballot-rigging. President Obasanjo's People's Democratic Party wins parliamentary majority.
Obasanjo re-elected
2003 19 April - First civilian-run presidential elections since end of military rule. Olusegun Obasanjo elected for second term with more than 60% of vote. Opposition parties reject result. EU poll observers cite "serious irregularities".
2003 September - Nigeria's first satellite, NigeriaSat-1, launched by Russian rocket.
2004 May - State of emergency is declared in the central Plateau State after more than 200 Muslims are killed in Yelwa in attacks by Christian militia; revenge attacks are launched by Muslim youths in Kano.
Trouble in the south
2004 August-September - Deadly clashes between gangs in oil city of Port Harcourt prompts strong crackdown by troops. Rights group Amnesty International cites death toll of 500, authorities say about 20 died.
2006 January onwards - Militants in the Niger Delta attack pipelines and other oil facilities and kidnap foreign oil workers. The rebels demand more control over the region's oil wealth.
2006 February - More than 100 people are killed when religious violence flares in mainly-Muslim towns in the north and in the southern city of Onitsha.
2006 April - Helped by record oil prices, Nigeria becomes the first African nation to pay off its debt to the Paris Club of rich lenders, which had written off two-thirds of the $30bn debt the previous year.
Bakassi deal
2006 August - Nigeria agrees to cede sovereignty over the disputed Bakassi peninsula to neighbouring Cameroon under the terms of a 2002 International Court of Justice ruling. Transfer takes place in 2008.
2007 April - Umaru Yar'Adua of the ruling People's Democratic Party wins the presidential election.
2008 September - Militants in the Niger Delta step up their attacks on oil installations, in response to what they describe as unprovoked attacks by the military on their bases.
Boko Haram uprising
2009 July - Hundreds die in northeastern Nigeria after the Boko Haram Islamist movement launches a campaign of violence in a bid to have Sharia law imposed on the entire country. Security forces storm Boko Haram's stronghold and kill the movement's leader.
Government frees the leader of the Niger Delta militant group Mend, Henry Okah, after he accepts an amnesty offer.
2010 May - President Umaru Yar'Adua dies after a long illness. Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, already acting in Yar'Adua's stead, succeeds him.
2010 December - Christmas Eve bomb attacks near central city of Jos kill at least 80 people. Attacks claimed by Islamist sect Boko Haram spark clashes between Christians and Muslims. Some 200 killed in reprisal attacks.
2011 March - Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan wins presidential elections.
2011 August - Suicide bomb attack on UN headquarters in Abuja kills 23 people. Boko Haram claims responsibility.
2011 December - Christmas Day bomb attacks by Boko Haram on churches kill about 40 people. President Jonathan declares state of emergency to contain violence by Boko Haram.
2012 January - More than 100 killed in single day of co-ordinated bombings and shootings in Kano, shortly after Boko Haram tells Christians to quit the north.
2013 May - Government declares state of emergency in three northern states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa and sends in troops to combat Boko Haram.
2013 September - Boko Haram murder more than 150 people in roadside attacks in the northeast. Separately, security forces fight Boko Haram insurgents in the capital Abuja.
2014 April - Boko Haram kidnaps more than 200 girls from a boarding school in northern town of Chibok, in an incident that draws major national and international outrage.
2014 November - Boko Haram launches a series of attacks in northeastern Nigeria, capturing several towns near Lake Chad and running raids into neighbouring Chad and Cameroon in early 2015. It switches allegiance from al-Qaeda to the Islamic State group.
2015 February-March - Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger form military coalition and push Boko Haram out of all towns back into Sambisa Forest.
President Buhari elected
2015 March - Muhammadu Buhari wins the presidential election, becoming the first opposition candidate to do so in Nigeria's history.
2016 June - Naira currency floated in attempt to stave off financial crisis caused by low oil prices.
2016 November - Niger Delta Avengers rebels bomb three oil pipelines in attempt to renew southern insurgency.
2017 January - Scores die as Nigerian air force accidentally bombs refugee camp rather than Boko Haram redoubt in Rann on Cameroon border.
Nigerian navy sends ships as part of regional force to oblige The Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh to step down after he loses election.
2017 May - More than 80 of the schoolgirls who were kidnapped in Chibok are freed in a prisoner swap with the Islamist group Boko Haram.
Now that Nigeria is eighteen years old democratically, there's reason for us as people to come together to define the type of the country we want,particularly for our yet unborn generations.
A fool at eighteen, is a fool forever !
May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
