Nigeria

The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, and reportage from around the world. Its aim is to break down barriers and introduce the essence of the place. Packed with essays and investigative journalism, original photography and illustrations, charts, and unusual facts and observations, each volume offers a unique insight into a different culture and examines how history has shaped the place into what it is today.

Since gaining independence from the UK, Nigeria has been in a state of permanent crisis. Dependence on oil is the glue that has kept together a country deeply divided but obsessed with an ideal of "national unity". However, this dependence has eroded institutions, compromised socio-economic development, caused corruption, coup d'états, and environmental disasters. The arrival of democracy in the 90s failed to bring much improvement. It is estimated that over 100 million Nigerians live under the poverty threshold. Violence is widespread: from the Boko Haram terrorists to the armed secessionist movements and the growing scourge of kidnappings. How does one live in a country where the state is absent?

In these circumstances, Nigerians bring out all their dynamism, entrepreneurial skills, and inventiveness.

As the generation of generals who governed the country for 60 years dies out, and younger citizens refuse to ignore injustice and violence, hope is born. There is optimism that a new, vibrant generation will take the country's future into their hands and, as they are accustomed to doing, fix it.