Why are ethnic tensions so great in Nigeria? What conflicts have arisen from those tensions?

Question

Why are ethnic tensions so great in Nigeria? What conflicts have arisen from those tensions?

Answer 1

The conflicts are greatest between the Ibo (Christian), and the other nationalities.

Part of the conflict arose because the Ibos - since they are Christian - once had better access to education than the Muslims of Nigeria.  

This is part of the reason for the greater economic success of the Ibo

(concentrated in the southeast).  The resulting jealousy over this helped lead to the Biafran war, of the 1970s.

Today, much of the Nigerian wealth is concentrated in the northern (Muslim) areas; so the fact that wealth is concentrated predominantly in one area creates, once again, a source of conflict.

Other problems are caused because pipelines cross through - and thus, devastate - traditional tribal lands.  (eg., an Ibo or Yoruba might run the oil company, but their pipeline would pass through another nationality's lands.)

The essential here is that Nigeria is essentially a set of nations strung together for the colonial power's convenience, with nothing to unite them except (sometimes) economics.