Philadelphia Weekly

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They come from a land of bustling cities and dense rain forests, mountain vistas and remote villages, a place where gnarled Baobab trees crouch like old men watching over the land of the Yoruba tribe in the west, the Hausa-Fulani in the north and the Igbo in the east.

They come from Nigeria--356,000 square miles carved from the African continent by British colonizers in the late 19th century. Nigeria is more than twice the size of California, and with 126 million people, boasts the largest population of any African nation. Nigeria counts more than 250 ethnic groups that speak a variety of languages, including English, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and Efik.

It is a place with a long history--from the Kanem-Borno empire that flourished for 1,000 years after the 9th century to the ancient Yoruba city of Ile-Ife, dating back to the 10th century, to the Hausa states that were built around A.D. 1,000.

But Nigeria's ancient glory has faded, and its modern history has been a study in turmoil. From the fight to free itself from British imperialism to the establishment of an independent state in 1960, to the bitter civil war among the country's largest ethnic groups, to the 16 years of military rule that ended in 1999, Nigerians--from the late 19th century into the new millennium--have known little but struggle.

That struggle was supposed to end with the discovery of oil in Nigeria. But in a cruel twist of fate, the oil that was supposed to bring prosperity to Nigerians has only caused turmoil and desperation, and has spurred even more of the government corruption that has plagued Nigeria for decades.

"The discovery of oil in Nigeria has been a big part of the self-destruction," says Dotun Aiyegbusi, a 36-year-old Nigerian financial advisor and record producer who lives in the Philadelphia area. "Nigeria used to be known as a country where the main source of income was agriculture. They were a big producer of cocoa, right up there next to Ghana. I don't know where they are now."

Aiyegbusi says that when they discovered oil in Nigeria, everything else was forgotten. The primary focus became money. "And that's been a big part of why--like when people say money's evil--it's brought in the kind of government that only wants one thing, which is ways of stealing and keeping money for themselves. That's the biggest problem in Nigeria--the bribery corruption and stealing public money.

"And there's a major security problem in Nigeria with armed robberies. Which is really when you talk to a lot of Nigerians, that's the main deterrent to them going back home. There's a security factor."

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In spite of the problems in Nigeria, most Nigerians come to America seeking education with the intent to eventually return. But the situation in Nigeria has been unstable in recent years.

The theft of billions in oil money by government officials, the graft that pervades the military and police departments, the precipitous drop in the value of Nigerian currency, the crushing poverty that has made armed robbery a means of survival, the skirmishes between villagers and the American oil companies seeking to drill on their land have all led to a mass exodus of Nigerians migrating to American cities like Philadelphia.

Between 1965 and 1987, Nigerians came in search of economic opportunity. A second wave came in the 1990s because of political turmoil in their homeland. There are now more than 20,000 Nigerians in the Philadelphia area. And in spite of strict immigration restrictions on Africans seeking to come to the U.S., the exodus shows no signs of waning.

According to the Balch Institute of Ethnic Studies, the Nigerian community is among the largest African immigrant communities in Philadelphia. Liberians and Ghanians are close behind.

But unlike other African countries, Nigeria is sending more than just people to Philadelphia. It is also sending oil. A whopping 63 percent of the 695,400 barrels of crude oil that comes into Sunoco's Philadelphia refineries every day is West African light oil sent here primarily from Nigeria.

The combination of immigrants and oil has played a major role in shaping the economic relationship between Philadelphia and the West African country. But many in Philadelphia's Nigerian community are seeking to do much more than just affect the economy. They want to make a greater impact--not just in their communities here, but also in their homeland.

Lawrence Dibor, 44, is a member of the Igbo tribe, an American citizen who has been here for 23 years. He hails from the Anambra state in southeast Nigeria, where caves, lakes, game reserves and bustling markets on the banks of the Niger River form a portion of Nigeria where some inhabitants trace their ancestors back before the time of Christ, to ancient Babylon.

Sitting in a wood-paneled room in the Union League--Dibor is the only African immigrant ever to gain membership to the upper-crust club--his large expressive eyes dance as he explains the links between Africans and African-Americans. He invokes the name of Martin Luther King Jr. more than once and is careful to acknowledge the late Rev. Leon Sullivan's Pan-African vision and its indelible impact on the world.