FACTS ABOUT NIGERIA!
I am supposed to find relevant facts about the country Nigeria, and I will find out how Nigeria’s situation is today.
Nigeria is a federal constitutional republic located in West-Africa. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country with more than 120 million inhabitants, and accounting for about one-fifth of the continent’s people. The capital is Abuja with 452 000 inhabitants. In Nigeria they speak five different languages: English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and Fulani. Their religion could be Muslim, Christian, and Indigenous beliefs.
Niger has more than 250 ethnic groups and the largest are the Yoruba, the Hausa and Fulani and the Igbo. Northern Nigeria is mostly Islamic and dominated by the Hausa-Fulani ethnic group. Southern Nigeria is more westernized and urbanized than the north, with the Yoruba in the southwest and the Igbo in the southeast. It is estimated that about half the Yoruba’s are Christian and half Muslim. The Igbo in the southwest tend to be Christian.
Nigeria was a British colony until 1960. In the first time as an independent state the country was a federation consisting of Northern, Eastern and Western region, where the regions had widespread autonomy. Nigeria became Republic in 1963, but conflicts between the different people groups remained strong.
Nigeria is, in many ways, a unique country within the context of political development. Within seven years of independence the country was plunged into civil war, which followed by a serried of military governments, and changes in governmental. Following twelve years of turmoil, a freely elected civilian government returned to power in 1979.
When oil was discovered in Nigeria, most people in the country thought that it was the best thing that had happened to the country other than gaining its political independence. Distrust between north and south have long contributed to be the internal strife and conflicts in Nigeria, both during and after the colonial era. Nigeria is one of the world’s largest oil producers and the large oil revenues are important source of conflict and corruption in the country. Over a quarter trillion dollars in oil has been lifted from Nigerian soils and waters in the last 40 years. But after years of military rule and rampant corruption, fueled by these oil monies the country is mired in billions of dollars in debt and is wracked with poverty.
The average life expectancy in Nigeria is 43 years. It is 44 years for woman, and 43 years for men. Round 67.3% of the male population over 15 years can read and write, among woman the figure is 49.6%. At school there are more than 18 million students in Nigerian schools. That is more than the total human population of South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, Tanzania and the school population of France, Britain and Spain. Today there are 31 universities in Nigeria.
One of Nigeria’s biggest internal challenges is the high crime level. Particularly violent crime is prevalent. The population is generally low confidence in police and security forces ability to combat the high crime in the country, and is also considered by many to be a part of the problem. Due to the police inability to deal with the problem of violence has been formed in several places borgervern groups.
The country’s economy was formerly based on agriculture, since the 1970-year strongly dominated by oil. Despite the large oil deposits have not Nigeria succeeded to exploit the sometimes substantial export earnings for sustainable economic development, and the country is still regarded as a low income countries. Ca 2/3 of the population live below the poverty line of 1 USD per day, and Nigeria are ranked as one of the world’s poorest countries, with low social development. The number of poor has grown from the middle of 1980-year, including because agricultural production has not kept pace with the growth in people.
So Nigeria is a hard working land, with a lot of crime and uncertainty among the population, what do you guys think about the high crime level after reading this? Can you give some examples?
Why do you think Nigeria is one of the poorest countries in the world, but are one of the largest oil producers? How can we explain that?
http://www.globalis.no/Land/Nigeria
http://www.globalissues.org/article/86/nigeria-and-oil
http://www.travelblog.org/World/ni-ppl.html
http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria
