08 May, 2006 - Published 13:37 GMT
Nigeria: Then & Now
In 1979, more than quarter of a century ago, Olusegun Obasanjo, then General Olusegun Obasanjo, was head of state, and the country was gearing up for elections which would return it to democratic rule.
When the BBC's senior correspondents failed to get visas to cover the election, a junior producer, Elizabeth Blunt, was packed off to Lagos and told to do her best.
Twenty seven years on and a senior correspondent herself, Elizabeth has been back to retrace that journey. Each day we will hear her reports on how Nigeria has changed.
Part 1: Nigeria Lagos AbujaOne of the more memorable moments of that first trip was the day Elizabeth was presented to the Emir of Zaria, one of northern Nigeria's senior traditional rulers, and in those days a figure who inspired considerable awe. In the second part of this extraordinary series she goes back to the royal court in Zaria to see whether that is still true.
In the third of the series, Elizabeth travels to the south east, the region which in the nineteen-sixties had made a doomed attempt to secede.
One change that has been widely remarked is that Nigeria has become more religious. In the muslim north that has meant a much wider use of sharia law. There was an international outcry when women were sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. But how has it changed women's everyday lives?
Elizabeth was sent to report on the elections which replaced General Olusegun Obasanjo's military regime with a civilian government led by President Shahu Shagari. For a novice reporter it was a crash course in the history of African's most populous nation, and the beginning of lasting fascination with Nigerian politics.
First Broadcast 08th - 12th May 2006