Is Nigeria independent?

The biggest story on the Nigerian Tribune website today is about Shell (the oil company) and some potential job cuts that would adversely effect the Nigerian economy.  The other two major headlines concern unrest within the PDP (peoples democratic party).

Amidst reading the stories, I kept thinking to myself how strange it was that the major news in the country concerns a foreign oil power, and a foreign governing system in crisis, and the question I asked myself was "Is Nigeria really decolonized?"  Just because it says on paper Nigeria is a free country, does it really mean that they are?

To me the bomb we dropped on Hiroshima is comparable with the bomb of politics the British dropped on Nigeria.  It is very clear to me now that in leaving Nigeria, the English never really left.  They ensured to set up a monetary system that would keep flowing after the exit of the militia...and I'm not so sure that the powers that be didn't postulate that a euro-centric government would fail - or at east keep Nigeria a 3rd world country (so prices stay cheap).

I'm not really sure that I'm trying to make some deep connection here, really I just wanted to see what other people thought.  The older I get the more I see that history will inevitably repeat itself.  The names and places change, but I fear now that Iraq will soon be 'America's Nigeria.'...maybe already is.  And then what's next? Cuba?  Haiti?  Iran?