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Books

The greatest surprise about Nigeria at 100 is that it exists at all

According to Richard Bourne, Africa’s vast, fractured nation is lucky to have survived colonialism and the rampant corruption that followed independence

17 October 2015

8:00 AM

17 October 2015

8:00 AM

A giant was born in 1914, an African giant. The same year European powers set about each other in the trenches a framework was laid out for a nation that over the next century would grow into Africa’s mightiest economy, one with a population so prodigious it will soon overtake every other barring China and India.

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Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £12.99 Tel: 08430 600033. Tim Butcher’s books include Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart and Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa’s Fighting Spirit.

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