Religious affiliation in Nigeria is strongly related to ethnicity, with rather distinct regional divisions between ethnic groups. The northern states, dominated by the Hausa and Fulani groups, are predominantly Muslim while the southern ethnic groups have a large number of Christians. In the southwest, there is no predominant religion.
Nigeria is divided into thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory, which are further sub-divided into 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs). The plethora of states, of which there were only three at independence, reflect the country's tumultuous history and the difficulties of managing such a heterogeneous national entity at all levels of government.
About two-thirds of Nigeria lies in the watershed of the Niger River, which empties in to the Atlantic at the Niger Delta, and its major tributaries: the Benue in the northeast, the Kaduna in the west, the Sokoto in the northwest, and the Anambra in the southeast.