27 February – A stolen bronze statue from Ifẹ in the Yoruba kingdom is seized at the Mexico City International Airport and returned to Nigeria.[14] The statue is later found to be a fake.[15]
13 April – People of African origin, including Nigerians, have faced discrimination in Guangzhou and elsewhere in China. Africans from Nigeria, Togo and Benin have been evicted from hotels in the middle of the night, a group of African students was forced to take COVID-19 tests despite not having travelled recently, and others reported being threatened with having their visas and work permits revoked.[21]
17 April – Considerable fake news about the coronavirus is circulating in Africa.[22]
19 April – Twenty-one employees of ExxonMobil from Akwa Ibom State were arrested for violating state quarantine standards in Rivers State, but were released when the union threatened industrial action. It is unknown if any of the arrested men have symptoms of infection.[24]
23 April – Nigeria has tested only 7,153 people for COVID-19, 0.03% of the population. 873 cases and 28 deaths have been reported, but the Africa Centers for Disease Control fears the numbers may go much higher.[25]
25 April – The Central Bank of Nigeria took 1.47 trillion naira ($3.8 billion) from lenders as additional cash reserves for failing to meet regulatory targets.[26]
28 April – Gravediggers in Kano report a mysterious increase in deaths. There is speculation that the deaths may be linked to the coronavirus pandemic, but no one knows since autopsies are not routinely done. Another possibility is that the deaths may be related to other underlying diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, meningitis and acute malaria that have gone untreated because many hospitals are closed.[27]
30 April – Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kano triple from 77 at the beginning of the week to 219 as health authorities ramp up "verbal autopsies". State officials insist most of the fatalities were due to other diseases rather than COVID-19. Nasiru Sani Gwarzo, head of the presidential COVID-19 taskforce sent to Kano, said the rise in deaths was also due to cuts to medical services for other ailments as a result of the crisis.[28]
May
6 May – Olalekan Hameed is sentenced to death in a trial broadcast on Zoom for the murder of his employer's mother.[29]
15 May – A controversial plan to close Koranic schools in 19 northern states and sending ′′almajirai′′ (″pupils″) home results in spreading COVID-19. Sixty-five boys test positive in Kaduna, 91 in Jigawa, eight in Gombe, and seven in Bauchi State.[30]
18 May – Boko Haram extremists attacked a village just as people were preparing to break their Ramadan fast after sundown, killing at least 20 people in the first attack of its kind in northeastern Nigeria since the holy month began.[31]
30 May – #JusticeForUwa is trending in Nigeria, with the family of Uwavera Omozuwa family appealing for help to track down her rapists and killers in a church in Benin City, Edo State.[32]
June
9 June – Gunmen suspected of belonging to Boko Haram kill 81 villagers in Borno State.[33] Another 20 people are killed in an attack in Katsina State.[33]
11 June – An Aide-de-camp to First Lady Aisha Buhari is arrested after shooting at presidential nephew and aide Sabiu Yusuf when the latter refuses to go into self-isolation after a trip to Lagos.[35]
All 36 of Nigeria's governors resolved to declare a state of emergency over rape and other gender-based violence against women and children in the country.[36]
U.S.-based streaming company Netflix pairs up with filmmaker Mo Abudu, owner of EbonyLife TV (ELTV), to create two new TV series and several films.[37]
22 June – Cross River gorillas including babies, once thought to be an extinct species, are captured on film by conservationists in the Mbe Mountains near the border with Cameroon.[38]
13 July – A retired American woman was rescued by a Police Intelligence Response Team after being held hostage for 15 months by a 34-year-old man in a hotel. The man had extorted US$48,000 from her.[40]
18 July – Between three and 16 security forces died and up to 28 are wounded in an attack inside a forest near Jibia in Katsina state.[41]
23 July – Militants from the Islamic State West Africa Province, which broke away from Boko Haram several years ago, claimed responsibility for killing five aid workers who were kidnapped last month in northeastern Nigeria.[42]
11 August – Musician Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, 22, is sentenced to death by hanging in Kano State for blasphemy against Muhammad.[43] A number of Independent UN human rights experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Karima Bennoune, urged the Government to immediately release the singer.[44]
20 August – The army regains control of Kukawa, Borno, where the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) had taken hundreds of captives on 18 August.[45]
23 August – Two die in clashes between security forces and Biafran separatists.[46]
20 October - Lekki massacre in the #Endsars protest, armed security personnel use live bullets to disperse crowd in Lekki leading to casualties and fatalities. Lagos State's governor declares a 24 hours curfew in the state.[48]
30 October – NaijaHacks, Africa's largest Hackathon, holds NaijaHacks from home 2020 Hackathon.[49]
14 November – Witnesses say that soldiers shot civilians during a peaceful protest is Lagos on 20 October.[51]
28 November - Koshebe massacre: 110 civilians and peasant farmers were killed and six were wounded as they worked in rice fields in Koshebe village. It is the deadliest attack against civilians in Nigeria this year.[52]
December
8 December – Amnesty International says 10,000 civilians have died while in police custody since the beginning of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2011.[53]
14 December – About half the 800 boys kidnapped by bandits in Katsina State are still unaccounted for.[54]
16 December – Seventeen of the schoolboys kidnapped by Boko Haram are rescued and two are killed; 300 are still unaccounted for.[55]
18 December – The schoolboys are released. One hundred girls kidnapped in the 2014 Chibok kidnapping are still missing.[56]
22 December – Eighty Muslim schoolboys are kidnapped and then released in Katsina State.[57]
25 December – Boku Haram militants kill eleven people and burn a church in Pemi, Borno State.[58]
29 December – The International Monetary Fund estimates the GDP of Nigeria at US$442.976 billion, making it the largest in Africa and the 26th largest in the world.[59]
31 December – Traditional Christian "crossover" end-of-year celebrations are subdued as churches are held to 50% capacity. Nigeria has had 85,500 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 1,260, although the actual totals may be higher because of a low testing rate.[60]
^"Suspected Boko Haram Fighters Kill at Least 30 in Nigeria". The New York Times. Reuters. 10 February 2020. Archived from the original on 11 February 2020. At least 30 people have been killed in Nigeria's northeastern Borno region after suspected Boko Haram fighters set ablaze several trucks carrying passengers on Sunday night, eyewitnesses and residents told Reuters.
^Ukomadu, Angela; Sanni, Seun; Eboh, Camillus; Ohuocha, Chijioke (15 March 2020). Maclean, William; Hudson, Alexandra (eds.). "Lagos gas blast kills 15, destroys several buildings, Nigerian officials say". Reuters. An explosion at a gas processing plant on Sunday killed at least 15 people and destroyed about 50 buildings after a fire broke out in a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, emergency services said. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said the explosion was triggered after a truck hit some gas cylinders stacked in a gas processing plant near the corporation's pipeline in Abule Ado area of Lagos state.
^"Nigerian soldiers and police killed in IS ambush in Borno state". BBC News. 27 September 2020. The Nigerian military says 18 people have been left dead after an ambush on a government convoy in the north-east of the country. It said four soldiers, 10 police officers and four civilians were killed in the attack targeting Borno state officials on Friday.
