Country Profile

Country Profile - Nigeria

Country Profile of Nigeria

President: Muhammadu Buhari

Capital: Abuja

Land area: 923.768 square kilometres

Population: 170.123.740; birthrate is 40.65/1000 population; death-rate: 17.18/1000 population; Life expectancy: 46.7 years

Monetary unit:  Naira

Languages: English(official), Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo(ibo), Fulane.

Ethnicity: Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is composed of more than 250 ethnic groups: Hausa and Fulani 29%, Yoruba 21%, Igbo (Ibo) 18%, Ijaw 10%, Kanuri 4%, Ibibio 3.5%, Tiv 2.5%

Literacy: total 68%
male: 75.7%
female: 60.6%

Economic summary: Real growth is at 6.2% and inflation at 16.5%;

 Agriculture: The sector contributes about 41% to the GDP

Geography
Nigeria is a country in West Africa. Nigeria shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast lies on the Gulf of Guinea in the south and it borders Lake Chad to the northeast.

 

Government
Democratic Rule

History
The evolution of Nigeria from about 1849 until it attained independence in 1960 is largely the story of the transformational impact of the British on the peoples and cultures of the Niger-Benue area.

The colonial authorities sought to define, protect and realize their imperial interest in this portion of West Africa in the hundred or so years between 1862 and 1960, The British were in the Niger- Benue area to pursue their interests, which were largely economic and strategic. In the process of seeking to realize those interests, there were many unplanned-for by-products.

The first critical step in this uncertain path was taken in 1849 when, as part of an effort to ‘sanitize’ the Bights of Benin and Biafra, which were notorious for the slave trade, the British created a consulate for the two Bights. From here, one thing led to another for the British, especially to deepen involvement in the political and economic life of the city states of the Bights and to rivalry with the French who also began showing imperial ambitions in the area. The result, in time, was that the British converted the coastal consulate and its immediate hinterland into the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1885, which, in 1893, transformed into the Niger Coast Protectorate.

The political administrative unit which came to be known as Western Nigeria in the 1950s came as the end of this second step.
The British administered political ‘baptism’ on Greyne Goldie’s National African Company which had successfully squeezed out rivals, British and non-British, from the trade in the lower Niger, following a trade war of almost unprecedented ferocity. As a result of the ‘baptism’, Goldie’s company became the Royal Niger Company, chartered and limited. It also acquired political and administrative powers over a narrow belt of territory on both sides of the river from the sea to Lokoja, as well as over the vast area which, in the 20th century, came to be known as Northern Nigeria.

In 1999 Olusegun Obasanjo was elected President of Nigeria through to 2007. That was the culmination of a life spent on the front line of African politics. In 2008 he was appointed by the United Nations as a special envoy for Africa and has since overseen democratic elections on behalf of the African Union and Ecowas in countries across the continent. He emerged as an advocate for investment into the country and with the launch of his Foundation he tackled issues critical to advance across the Continent. Bobasanjo was key in the creation of the African Peer Review mechanism along-side Former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki. He also worked to closely with the African Union in its regeneration and positioning.

 Nigeria is now Africa’s largest economy. Economics say Nigeria should be among the world’s 15 largest economies by 2050, when its gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to exceed $4.5 trillion in purchasing power parity terms or, in other words, on the basis that in relative terms the naira can buy the same basket of goods as the dollar at that particular time.

This prediction came from credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service last week, and it is also shared by Jim O’Neill, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, who wrote in a column that Nigeria stood a much better chance of being in the top 15 by 2050 than of being among the world’s top 20 economies by 2020. That goal, O’Neill said, was too soon to be likely.

Nigeria’s tourism industry is also said to be the most renowned in the continent.  Places like the Obudu Mountain Resort, has a helipad for access by air. At the base of the hills on which the ranch is located lies a newly built world-class water park with state-of-art swimming facilities and water slides for children, teens and adults. The Mambilla Plateau, situated in the Taraba State is a high grassland plateau with an average elevation of about 1,524 metres (5,000 ft) above sea level, making it the highest plateau in Nigeria. Lastly the Cross River Park.The fauna species inventory of the park is very rich, with many of them endemic to the area. There are 23 species of primates in Nigeria, 18 of which are found here. Two of them very important hominoids: the Cross River gorilla and the chimpanzee.

The Nigerian government announced its 2015 elections to be on the 14 February but due to security concerns in the north of the country would be delayed. The electoral commission thus announced the elections would be postponed to the 28th February. The delay wasn’t received very well by opposition, some citing this was a dent on democracy and that the north can’t be stabilized in just six weeks.

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