Nigeria is the most populous country on the African Continent with a population of more than 170 million people and with the largest number of dioceses (52 ecclesiastical circumscriptions). The country has the largest number of Catholic bishops in Africa. Living in the country, one discovers that Nigeria is really among the most religious countries in the world. Relations between Nigeria and the Holy See have remained cordial and mutually beneficial.
There had been several efforts made since Nigeria’s Independence, in 1960, to establish diplomatic relations between the Holy See (Vatican) and Nigeria. Diplomatic negotiations are known to be circumlocutory in most cases and can take some pretty good time. Negotiations towards the concretization of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Nigeria was no exception. Consequently, talks between the two countries dragged on to mid 1960s. Just when it was gathering sufficient momentum for actualization, there was some political upheaval in Nigeria, which snowballed into a military coup d’état 1966. The Nigerian Civil War started the following year and lasted 3 years. Obviously, this was not the period for diplomatic jaw-jaw.
After the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, the government of General Yakubu Gowon was preoccupied with the Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and  Reintegration of those areas and people affected by the Civil War and therefore had little time for diplomatic negotiations. Just when, in 1975, the issue of diplomatic relations with the Vatican came up, General Yakubu Gowon was toppled via a military coup d’état and the issue was put in abeyance. The following year, however, full diplomatic relations was established between Nigeria and the Vatican. So, 1976 marked the beginning of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The concretization of diplomatic relations in 1976 did not lead to the immediate establishment of an embassy at the Vatican; rather, the diplomatic duties of Nigeria for the Vatican was handled by the Nigerian Embassy in Spain. This proxy relations came to an end with the establishment of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the Holy See in 2012, with His Excellency Ambassador (Dr) Francis Okeke as the pioneer in-situ Ambassador. Ambassador Okeke left the mission in August 2015. The current Ambassador is His Excellency Ambassador Godwin George Umo OON.
