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| Nigeria | Plants and Animal | Back to Top |
Nigeria's climate permits the cultivation of a mixture of crops in a pattern that emerged in earlier centuries in response to local conditions. As in other West Africa states, rainfall is heaviest in the south, where the forests and savannas benefit from extensive precipitation and comparatively short dry seasons. The staples are root crops, including cassava, yams, taro (cocoyams), and sweet potatoes. Tree crops--cacao, oil palm, and rubber--constitute the area's main commercial produce. Cacao, from which cocoa is made, grows mostly in the southwest. Oil palms predominate in the southeast and are numerous in the south-central area. Rubber stands are common in south-central and southeastern Nigeria.
Most of Nigeria's sheep and goats are in the north, where the Fulani maintained an approximate ratio of 30 % sheep and goats to 70 % cattle. About 40 % of northern nonFulani farming households are around to keep sheep and goats. Most pigs are raised in the south, where the Muslim proscription against eating pork is not a remarkable factor. Almost all rural households raise poultry as a subsistence meat. Chickens are predominantly of indigenous origin, and there is some crossbreeding with foreign stock. Egg production is low. Private commercial poultry operations increased rapidly during the 1970s and 1980s near urban areas, providing a growing source of eggs for the cities. But commercial operations remained largely dependent on corn and other feeds imported from the United States.
| Nigeria | Communications | Back to Top |
an insufficient system, further limited by poor maintenance; major development is required and a start has been made
domestic: intercity traffic is carried by coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, a domestic communications satellite system with 19 earth stations, and a coastal submarine cable; mobile cellular facilities and the Internet are available
international: satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean); coaxial submarine cable SAFE.
| Nigeria | Culture | Back to Top |
Nigeria, The most populous nation in Africa and the tenth largest nation by population in the world, is located at the eastern terminus of the bulge of West Africa. As with many of the other nations of Africa, Nigeria's national boundaries result from its colonial history and cut across a number of cultural and physical boundaries. Nigeria has a total area of 923,768 square kilometers, about 60 % the size of the state of Alaska, and the greatest area of the nations along the coast of West Africa -although in Africa as a whole, it is only the 14th largest nation by area. The maximum north-south distance within the nation is about 1,040 kilometers, while the maximum east-west distance is about 1,120 kilometers. Although it represents only about 3 % of the surface area of Africa, Nigeria contains about 20 % of total African population. In this and other respects, it is arguably the single most valuable nation on the continent.
Aside from Lagos, the most rapid recent rates of urbanization in the 1980s were around Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta region, which was at the heart of the oil boom, and generally throughout the Igbo and other areas of the southeast. These regions historically had few urban centers, but numerous large cities, including Onitsha, Owerri, Enugu, Aba, and Calabar, grew very rapidly as commercial and administrative centers. The Yoruba southwest was by 1990 still the most highly urbanized part of the nation, while the middle belt was the least urbanized. The problems of Lagos, as well as the desire for a more centrally located capital that would be more of a force for national unity, led to the designation in 1976 of a site for a new national capital at Abuja.
| Nigeria | Defence | Back to Top |
Military branches: Army, Navy, Air Force
Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 29,940,922 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 17,201,367 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 1,375,112 (2001 est.)
| Nigeria | International Disputes | Back to Top |
Delimitation of international boundaries in the vicinity of Lake Chad, the deficiency of which led to border incidents in the past, has been completed and awaits ratification by Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria; dispute with Cameroon over land and maritime boundaries around the Bakasi Peninsula is currently before the ICJ; tripartite maritime boundary and economic zone dispute with Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon is currently before the ICJ
| Nigeria | Economy | Back to Top |
Nigeria’s economy, traditionally based on agriculture and trade, changed profoundly under colonial rule, beginning in the late 19th century. The need to pay taxes to the colonial government forced Nigerian farmers to replace food-producing crops with cash-producing crops, which the government bought at low prices and resold at a profit. In the 1960s and 1970s the petroleum industry developed, prompting greatly increased export earnings and allowing massive investments in industry, agriculture, infrastructure, and social services. Many of these large investments, often joint ventures with private corporations, failed.
The Nigerian economy is one of the largest in Africa. Since the late 1960s, it has been based primarily on the petroleum industry. A series of world oil price increases from 1973 produced rapid economic growth in transportation, construction, manufacturing, and government services. Because this led to a great influx of rural people into the larger urban centres, agricultural production stagnated to such an extent that cash crops like palm oil, peanuts (groundnuts), and cotton were no longer remarkable export commodities; in addition, from about 1975 Nigeria was forced to import such basic commodities as rice and cassava for domestic consumption. This system worked well as long as revenues from petroleum remained constant, but since the late 1970s the agricultural area has been in continuing crisis because of the fluctuating world oil market. Although much of the population remained engaged in farming, too little food was produced, requiring increasingly costly imports. The various governments have dealt with this problem by banning agricultural imports and by focusing, albeit briefly, on various agricultural and indigenization plans. In the late 1990s the government shifted its policy toward privatizing many state-run enterprises—particularly in communication, power, and transportation—in order to enhance the quality of service and reduce dependence on the government.
The oil-valuable Nigerian economy, long hobbled by political instability, corruption, and poor macroeconomic management, is undergoing substantial economic reform under the new civilian administration. Nigeria's former military rulers failed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the capital-intensive oil sector, which provides 20% of GDP, 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of budgetary revenues. The largely subsistence agricultural area has failed to keep up with rapid population growth, and Nigeria, once a large net exporter of food, now must import food. Following the signing of an IMF stand-by agreement in August 2000, Nigeria received a debt-restructuring deal from the Paris Club and a $1 billion loan from the IMF, both contingent on economic reforms. Increases in foreign investment and oil production combined with high world oil prices should push growth over 4% in 2001-02.
| Nigeria | Education | Back to Top |
There were three fundamentally distinct education systems in Nigeria in 1990: the indigenous system, Quranic schools, and formal European-style education institutions. In the rural areas where the majority lived, children learned the skills of farming and other work, as well as the duties of adulthood, from participation in the community. This process was often supplemented by age-based schools in which groups of young boys were instructed in community responsibilities by mature men. Apprentice systems were widespread throughout all occupations; the trainee provided service to the teacher over a time of years and eventually struck out on his own. Truck driving, building trades, and all indigenous crafts and services from leather work to medicine were passed down in families and acquired through apprenticeship training as well. In 1990 this indigenous system included more than 50 % of the school-age population and operated almost entirely in the private sector; there was virtually no regulation by the government unless training included the need for a license. By the 1970s, education experts were asking how the system could be integrated into the more formal schooling of the young, but the question remained unresolved by 1990.
For generations before the reached of Europeans, Nigerians taught their children informally about their culture, work, survival skills, and social activities. Some societies gave more formal instruction about society and culture as part of young peoples’ rites of passage into adulthood. In Islamic communities, students studied the Qur’an (Koran) and read other religious texts written in Arabic. Many of the more able students pursued higher Islamic studies and became teachers, clerics, or legal scholars. By 1919 northern Nigeria had about 25,000 Qur’anic schools. A large number of Islamic schools are still in operation.
| Nigeria | Government | Back to Top |
Government: Federal republic under strong presidential administration. Became parliamentary democracy at freedom; under military rule 1966 to 1979, 1983- . Constitution of 1979 amended February 1984. New constitution published 1989 and scheduled to take effect January 1993; provides for three independent branches of government: administrator, legislative, judicial. National Assembly broken in 1983, had not been reinstated as of mid-1991. Transition to civilian rule scheduled to be completed January 1993.
Administrative Divisions: Thirty states separated into local councils; Federal Capital Territory of Abuja projected to become partially operational as national capital in 1991 as federal departments transfer from Lagos.
Judicial System: Legal system based on English common law modified by Nigerian rulings, constitution of 1979, legislative enactments, and decrees of military government in effect. Draft constitution of 1989 to take effect at start of Third Republic. Customary and Muslim sharia law recognized in personal status matters. Federal system included Supreme Court, federal courts of appeal, and federal high courts. Supreme Court had original jurisdiction in constitutional disputes.
Politics: In 1989 two political parties accomplished by government: National Republican Convention, slightly right of center, and Social Democratic Party, slightly left of center. Presidential elections scheduled for December 1992.
Foreign Relations: Nonaligned; active member of United Nations, Organization of African Unity, Commonwealth of Nations, and Economic Community of West African States. Main principles of foreign policy: noninterference in internal affairs and inviolability of national borders in Africa.
| Nigeria | History | Back to Top |
Like so many other modern african states, Nigeria is the creation of European imperialism. Its very name--after the great Niger River, the nation's dominating physical feature--was suggested in the 1890s by British journalist Flora Shaw, who later became the wife of colonial governor Frederick Lugard. The modern history of Nigeria--as a political state encompassing 250 to 400 ethnic groups of widely varied cultures and modes of political organization--dates from the completion of the British conquest in 1903 and the amalgamation of northern and southern Nigeria into the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914. The history of the Nigerian people extends backward in time for some three millennia. Archaeological demonstrate, oral traditions, and written documentation establish the existence of dynamic societies and well-developed political systems whose history had an valuable determine on colonial rule and has continued to shape independent Nigeria. Nigerian history is fragmented in the sense that it evolved from a mixture of traditions, but many of the most outstanding features of modern society reflect the strong determine of the three regionally dominant ethnic groups--the Hausa in the north, the Yoruba in the west, and the Igbo in the east.
In the three decades since the freedom of Nigeria in 1960, a time half as long as the colonial era, Nigeria has experienced a number of successful and attempted military coups d'état and a brutal civil war, let corrupt civilian governments siphon off the profits from the oil boom of the 1970s, and faced economic collapse in the 1980s. As the most populous nation in Africa, and one of the ten most populous countries in the world, Nigeria has a history that is valuable in its own right but that also bears scrutiny if for no other reason than to understand how and why this nation became as it is today.
| Nigeria | Introduction | Back to Top |
Nigeria, Federal Republic of, federal republic, western Africa, bounded on the north by Niger, on the east by Chad and Cameroon, on the south by the Gulf of Guinea, and on the west by Benin. The most populous nation in Africa, Nigeria has an area of 923,773 sq km (356,669 sq mi). Its name is derived from that of its major river, the Niger. Abuja is the capital and Lagos is the largest city.
Population 103,912,000 (1996 estimate) Population Density 113 people/sq km (292 people/sq mi) (1996 estimate) Urban/Rural Breakdown 40%Urban 60%Rural Largest Cities Lagos1,347,000 Ibadan1,295,000 Kano699,900 (1995 estimate) Ethnic Groups 21%Hausa 21%Yoruba 18%Ibo 11%Fulani 29%Other including Ibibio, Kanuri, Edo, Tiv, Ijaw, Bura, and Nupe Languages Official Language English Other Languages Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo, Kanuri, Tiv Religions 50% Islam 22% Protestantism 18% orthodox animist beliefs 10% Roman Catholicism
| Nigeria | Land | Back to Top |
N/A
| Nigeria | Languages | Back to Top |
Most Nigerians speak more than one language. English, the nation’s official language, is widely spoken, particularly among educated people. About 400 native Nigerian languages have been identified, and some are threatened with extinction. The most common of the native languages are Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo. Other major languages include Fulfulde, Kanuri, Ibibio, Tiv, Efik, Edo, Ijo, and Nupe. The most widely used languages have several distinct regional dialects, and in some regions, such as the Jos Plateau and surrounding middle belt, hundreds of small groups make for wide linguistic variations across short distances. The two main trade languages are pidgin, a distinct language in which English is combined with native languages, and which is used commonly in the south, and Hausa, used mostly in the north.
| Nigeria | Life | Back to Top |
As with other aspects of society, women's roles were primarily governed by regional and ethnic differences. In the north, Islamic practices were still common. This process meant, generally, less formal education; early teenage marriages, particularly in rural areas; and confinement to the household, which was often polygynous, except for visits to kin, ceremonies, and the workplace, if employment were available and permitted by a girl's family or husband. For the most part, Hausa women did not work in the fields, whereas Kanuri women did; both helped with harvesting and were responsible for all household food processing. Urban women sold cooked foods, usually by sending young girls out onto the streets or operating small stands. Research suggested that this practice was one of the main reasons city women gave for opposing schooling for their daughters. In the modern sector, a few women were appearing at all levels in offices, banks, radio, television, and the professions This trend resulted from women's secondary schools, teachers' colleges, and in the 1980s women. holding around one-fifth of university places--double the proportion of the 1970s. Research in the 1980s suggested that, for the Muslim north, education beyond primary school was limited to the daughters of the business and professional elites, and in almost all cases, courses and professions were chosen by the family, not the woman themselves.
A national feminist movement was inaugurated in 1982, and a national conference held at Ahmadu Bello University. The papers presented there suggested a growing awareness by Nigeria's university-educated women that the place of women in society required a concerted effort and a place on the national agenda; the public perception, remained far behind. For example, a feminist meeting in Ibadan came out against polygyny and then was soundly criticized by market women, who said they supported the practice because it allowed them to pursue their trading activities and have the household looked after at the same time. Research in the north, suggested that many women opposed the practice, and tried to keep bearing children to stave off a second wife's entry into the household. Although women's status would undoubtedly rise, for the foreseeable future Nigerian women deficiencyed the opportunities of men.
| Nigeria | organization | Back to Top |
ACP, AfDB, C, CCC, ECA, ECOWAS, FAO, G-15, G-19, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OAU, OIC, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMOP, UNMOT, UNTAET, UNU, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO.
| Nigeria | People | Back to Top |
The size of its population is one of Nigeria's most remarkable and typical features. With likely more than 100 million people in 1990--the precise figure is uncertain because there has been no accepted census since 1963, although a census was scheduled for the fall of 1991--Nigeria's population is about twice the size of that of the next largest nation in Africa, Egypt, which had an around mid-1989 population of 52 million. Nigeria represents about 20 % of the total population of sub-Saharan Africa. The population is unevenly distributed, however; a large %age of the total number live within several hundred kilometers of the coast but population is also dense along the northern river basin areas such as Kano and Sokoto. Population densities, particularly in the southwest near Lagos and the valuable agricultural regions around Enugu and Owerri, exceed 400 inhabitants per kilometer.None of the neighboring states of West or Central Africa approaches the total level of Nigerian population or the densities found in the areas of greatest concentration in Nigeria. Several of Nigeria's twenty-one states have more people than a number of other countries in West Africa, and some of the Igbo areas of the southeast have the highest rural densities in sub-Saharan Africa. In contrast, other areas of Nigeria are sparsely populated and have apparently remained so for a considerable time. This pattern of population distribution has major implications for the nation's development and has had great impact on the nation's postfreedom history.
There are three major ethnic groups in the nation: the Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba, and the Igbo. The northern-dwelling Hausa, the most numerous group in the nation, have become integrated with the smaller Fulani group, whose members conquered Hausaland in the early 19th century; the great majority of both groups are Muslims. Although town-dwelling Fulani intermarry freely with the Hausa and other groups, they continue to control the administration of the Hausa towns. The cattle-herding Fulani, who generally do not intermarry, speak the Fulani language of Fula rather than Hausa.
| Nigeria | Politics | Back to Top |
All People's Party or APP [Alhaji Yusuf ALI]; Alliance for Democracy or AD [contested between Yusuf MAMMAN and Alhasi Adamu ABDULKADIR]; People's Democratic Party or PDP [Barnabas GEMADE]
| Nigeria | Provinces | Back to Top |
36 states and 1 territory*; Abia, Abuja Federal Capital Territory*, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nassarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara
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| Nigeria | Time | Back to Top |
| Nigeria | Currency and General Information | Back to Top |
| Nigeria Nairas | United States Dollars |
| 1.00 NGN | 0.00861326 USD |
| 116.100 NGN | 1 USD |
| Countries Currency Unit | USD/Unit | Units/USD | |
| DZD | Algeria Dinars | 0.0129554 | 77.1877 |
| USD | United States Dollars | 1.00000 | 1.00000 |
| ARS | Argentina Pesos | 0.341293 | 2.93004 |
| AUD | Australia Dollars | 0.533413 | 1.87472 |
| ATS | Austria Schillings ** | 0.0632609 | 15.8076 |
| BSD | Bahamas Dollars | 1.00000 | 1.00000 |
| BBD | Barbados Dollars | 0.502513 | 1.99000 |
| BEF | Belgium Francs ** | 0.0215788 | 46.3417 |
| BMD | Bermuda Dollars | 1.00000 | 1.00000 |
| BRL | Brazil Reals | 0.430318 | 2.32386 |
| GBP | United Kingdom Pounds | 1.42399 | 0.702251 |
| BGL | Bulgaria Leva | 0.447293 | 2.23567 |
| CAD | Canada Dollars | 0.627606 | 1.59336 |
| CLP | Chile Pesos | 0.00152392 | 656.202 |
| CNY | China Yuan Renminbi | 0.120813 | 8.27726 |
| CYP | Cyprus Pounds | 1.49883 | 0.667186 |
| CZK | Czech Republic Koruny | 0.0281883 | 35.4758 |
| DKK | Denmark Kroner | 0.117155 | 8.53568 |
| XCD | East Caribbean Dollars | 0.370370 | 2.70000 |
| EGP | Egypt Pounds | 0.217271 | 4.60255 |
| EUR | Euro | 0.870489 | 1.14878 |
| FJD | Fiji Dollars | 0.447227 | 2.23600 |
| FIM | Finland Markkaa ** | 0.146406 | 6.83034 |
| FRF | France Francs ** | 0.132705 | 7.53550 |
| DEM | Germany Deutsche Marks ** | 0.445074 | 2.24682 |
| XAU | Gold Ounces | 301.977 | 0.00331151 |
| GRD | Greece Drachmae ** | 0.00255463 | 391.447 |
| HKD | Hong Kong Dollars | 0.128215 | 7.79939 |
| HUF | Hungary Forint | 0.00358416 | 279.006 |
| ISK | Iceland Kronur | 0.00999868 | 100.013 |
| INR | India Rupees | 0.0205205 | 48.7319 |
| IDR | Indonesia Rupiahs | 0.000102055 | 9,798.61 |
| IEP | Ireland Pounds ** | 1.10529 | 0.904738 |
| ILS | Israel New Shekels | 0.212386 | 4.70841 |
| ITL | Italy Lire ** | 0.000449570 | 2,224.35 |
| JMD | Jamaica Dollars | 0.0210041 | 47.6099 |
| JPY | Japan Yen | 0.00754183 | 132.594 |
| JOD | Jordan Dinars | 1.41057 | 0.708931 |
| LBP | Lebanon Pounds | 0.000660937 | 1,513.00 |
| LUF | Luxembourg Francs ** | 0.0215788 | 46.3417 |
| MYR | Malaysia Ringgits | 0.263330 | 3.79751 |
| MXN | Mexico Pesos | 0.111007 | 9.00848 |
| NZD | New Zealand Dollars | 0.440474 | 2.27028 |
| NOK | Norway Kroner | 0.113022 | 8.84780 |
| NLG | Netherlands Guilders ** | 0.395011 | 2.53158 |
| PKR | Pakistan Rupees | 0.0166945 | 59.9000 |
| PHP | Philippines Pesos | 0.0196386 | 50.9202 |
| XPT | Platinum Ounces | 510.962 | 0.00195709 |
| PLN | Poland Zlotych | 0.243488 | 4.10699 |
| PTE | Portugal Escudos ** | 0.00434198 | 230.310 |
| ROL | Romania Lei | 0.0000303433 | 32,956.21 |
| RUR | Russia Rubles | 0.0321342 | 31.1195 |
| SAR | Saudi Arabia Riyals | 0.266668 | 3.74998 |
| XAG | Silver Ounces | 4.65692 | 0.214734 |
| SGD | Singapore Dollars | 0.542540 | 1.84318 |
| SKK | Slovakia Koruny | 0.0208441 | 47.9751 |
| ZAR | South Africa Rand | 0.0883340 | 11.3207 |
| KRW | South Korea Won | 0.000759354 | 1,316.91 |
| ESP | Spain Pesetas ** | 0.00523174 | 191.141 |
| XDR | IMF Special Drawing Rights | 1.24862 | 0.800882 |
| SDD | Sudan Dinars | 0.00384615 | 260.000 |
| SEK | Sweden Kronor | 0.0964189 | 10.3714 |
| CHF | Switzerland Francs | 0.593789 | 1.68410 |
| TWD | Taiwan New Dollars | 0.0286531 | 34.9002 |
| THB | Thailand Baht | 0.0230087 | 43.4619 |
| TTD | Trinidad and Tobago Dollars | 0.163399 | 6.12000 |
| TRL | Turkey Liras | 0.000000763622 | 1,309,549.07 |
| VEB | Venezuela Bolivares | 0.00108696 | 920.000 |
| ZMK | Zambia Kwacha | 0.000239866 | 4,169.00 |
| Nigeria : Geographic coordinates | 10 00 N, 8 00 E |
| Nigeria : Population growth rate | 2.61% |
| Nigeria : Birth rate | 39.69 births/1,000 population |
| Nigeria : Death rate | 13.91 deaths/1,000 population |
| Nigeria : People living with HIV/AIDS | 2.7 million |
| Nigeria : Independence | 1 October 1960 |
| Nigeria : National holiday | Independence Day, 1 October |
| Nigeria : Constitution | 1999 |
| Nigeria : GDP | purchasing power parity - $117 billion |
| Nigeria : GDP - per capita | purchasing power parity - $950 |
| Nigeria : Electricity - consumption | 17.372 billion kWh |
| Nigeria : Exports | $22.2 billion petroleum and petroleum products 95%, cocoa, rubber |
| Nigeria : Imports | $10.7 billion machinery, chemicals, transport equipment, manufactured goods, food and live animals |
| Nigeria : Telephones | 500,000 |
| Nigeria : Mobile cellular | 26,700 |
| Nigeria : Radio broadcast stations | AM 82, FM 35, shortwave 11 |
| Nigeria : Radios | 23.5 million |
| Nigeria : Television broadcast stations | 16 |
| Nigeria : Televisions | 6.9 million |
| Nigeria : Internet country code | .ng |
| Nigeria : Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | 11 |
| Nigeria : Internet users | 100,000 |
| Nigeria : Railways | 3,557 km |
| Nigeria : Highways | 194,394 km |
| Nigeria : Waterways | 8,575 km |
| Nigeria : Pipelines | crude oil 2,042 km; petroleum products 3,000 km; natural gas 500 km |
| Nigeria : Ports and harbors | Calabar, Lagos, Onne, Port Harcourt, Sapele, Warri |
| Nigeria : Merchant marine | 41 ships |
| Nigeria : Airports | 70 |
| Nigeria : Heliports | 1 |
| Nigeria : Military branches | Army, Navy, Air Force |
| Nigeria : Military expenditures | $360 million |