The Igbos of South East Nigeria, otherwise known as Ndigbo remains one of Nigeria’s major and most enterprising ethnic groups accounting for about 18% of Nigeria’s estimated 150 million population. The website nationsencyclopedia.com gives the breakdown of the make-up of the other ethnic groups as follows; The Hausa, 21%;Yoruba, 21%; Fulani, 12%; Ijaw, 10%; Kanuri, 4.1%; Ibibio, 3.6%; Tiv, 2.5%; and others, 18.7%.
These classifications may not be accurate as argued by some commentators, for example the website onlinenigeria.com has published a list of what it describes as 371 identifiable tribes in Nigeria with a statement that some of these tribes are present in more than one state in Nigeria. This may then suggest that contrary to popular belief that only about 250 ethnic languages are spoken in Nigeria; the number may well then be close to 400, including tribes not captured in the onlinenigeria.com list.
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