Nigeria

Overview

Statistics population- 131,530,000

Geography Nigeria is covered by three types of vegetation: forests (where there is significant tree cover), savannah (insignificant tree cover, with grasses and flowers located between trees), and [|montane] land. (The latter is the least common, and is mainly found in the mountains near the Cameroonian border.) Both the forest zone and the savannah zone are divided into three parts.[|[][|4][|]] The forest zone's most southerly portion is defined as salt water swamp, also known as a mangrove swamp due to the large amount of [|mangroves] in the area. North of this is fresh water swamp, containing different vegetation from the salt water swamp, and north of that is rain forest.[|[][|4][|]] The savannah zone's three categories are divided into "guinea savannah," the most common across the country, "Sudan savannah," and "sahel savannah." Guinea savannah is made up of plains of tall grass which are interrupted by trees; Sudan savannah is similar but with "shorter grasses and shorter trees." Sahel savannah is comprised patches of grass and sand, and is found in the northeast.[|[][|4][|]]
 * [|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. Noted geographical features in Nigeria include the [|Adamawa] and [|Jos] Plateaus, and the [|Niger River] and [|Niger Delta]. The country's [|geographic coordinates] are [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Erioll_world.svg/18px-Erioll_world.svg.png width="18" height="18"]] [|10°00′N 8°00′E] [|﻿ /] [|10°N 8°E﻿ / 10; 8]



History Recent archaeological research has shown that people were already living in southwestern Nigeria (specifically Iwo-Eleru) as early as 9000 BC and perhaps earlier at Ugwuelle-Uturu ([|Okigwe]) in southeastern Nigeria.[|[][|1][|]] Smelting furnaces at Taruga dating from the 4th century BC provide the oldest evidence of metalworking in Archaeology. Microlithic and ceramic industries were developed by savanna pastoralists from at least the [|4th millennium BC] and were continued by subsequent agricultural communities. In the south, hunting and gathering gave way to subsistence farming in the first millennium BC and the cultivation of staple foods. Primitive transition from [|Neolithic] times to the [|Iron Age] apparently was achieved without intermediate bronze production. Some scholars speculate that the smelting process was transmitted from the [|Mediterranean] by [|Berbers]. Others suggest the technology moved west from the [|Nile Valley], although the Iron Age in the [|Niger River] valley and the forest region appears to predate the introduction of metallurgy in the upper savanna by more than 800 years. The earliest identified Nigerian culture is that of the [|Nok] people who thrived between 500 BC and 200 AD on the [|Jos Plateau] in northeastern Nigeria. Information is lacking from the first millennium AD following the Nok ascendancy, but by the [|2nd millennium AD] there was active trade from North Africa through the Sahara to the forest, with the people of the savanna acting as intermediaries in exchanges of various goods..

Economy The [|petroleum]-based **economy of [|Nigeria]**, 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. The economy has overdependence on the capital-intensive oil sector, which provides 20% of [|GDP], 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of government revenues. The largely subsistence agricultural sector has not kept up with rapid population growth, and Nigeria, once a large net exporter of food, now imports some of its food products. In 2006, Nigeria successfully convinced the [|Paris Club] to let it buy back the bulk of its debts owed to the Paris Club for a cash payment of roughly $12 billion (USD)[|[][|1][|]]. Nigeria’s economy is struggling to leverage the country’s vast wealth in fossil fuels in order to displace the crushing poverty that affects about 57 percent of its population. Economists refer to the coexistence of vast wealth in natural resources and extreme personal poverty in developing countries like Nigeria as the “[|resource curse]”. Nigeria’s exports of oil and natural gas—at a time of peak prices—have enabled the country to post merchandise trade and current account surpluses in recent years. Reportedly, 80 percent of Nigeria’s energy revenues flow to the government, 16 percent cover operational costs, and the remaining 4 percent go to investors. However, the World Bank has estimated that as a result of corruption 80 percent of energy revenues benefit only 1 percent of the population. During 2005 Nigeria achieved a milestone agreement with the Paris Club of lending nations to eliminate all of its bilateral external debt. Under the agreement, the lenders will forgive most of the debt, and Nigeria will pay off the remainder with a portion of its energy revenues. Outside of the energy sector, Nigeria’s economy is highly inefficient. Moreover, human capital is underdeveloped—Nigeria ranked 151 out of 177 countries in the United Nations Development Index in 2004—and non-energy-related infrastructure is inadequate.[|[][|2][|]]

Government This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Nigeria ||
 * Politics of Nigeria** take place in a framework of a [|federal] [|presidential] [|representative democratic] [|republic], whereby the [|President of Nigeria] ([|Umaru Musa Yar'Adua]) is both [|head of state] and [|head of government], and of a [|multi-party system]. [|Executive power] is exercised by the government. [|Legislative power] is vested in both the [|government] and the two chambers of the legislature, the [|House of Representatives] and the [|Senate]. Together the two chambers make up the law-making body in Nigeria called the National Assembly. The highest judiciary arm of government in Nigeria is the [|Supreme Court of Nigeria]. Nigeria also practices [|Baron de Montesquieu]'s theory of the separation of powers. The National Assembly serves as a watchdog to the excesses of the executive arm of government.
 * = ** [|Nigeria] ** ||
 * = [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Coat_of_arms_of_Nigeria.png/125px-Coat_of_arms_of_Nigeria.png width="125" height="110" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_arms_of_Nigeria.png"]]

Religion All [|religions] represented in [|Nigeria] were practiced in every major city in 1990. But [|Islam] dominated in the north and held strong numbers in the South Western, [|Yoruba] part of the country. [|Protestantism] and local [|syncretic] [|Christianity] are also evidence in Yoruba areas, while [|Catholicism] predominates in the [|Igbo] and closely related areas. Both Protestantism and Catholicism dominated in the [|Ibibio], [|Annang], and the [|Efik] lands. Other religions- English, Hausa, and Fulani.

Culture The **Culture of Nigeria** is shaped by [|Nigeria]'s multiple [|ethnic groups]. The country has over 250 different languages and cultures. The three largest are the [|Hausa]-[|Fulani] who are predominant in the north, the [|Igbo] who are predominant in the southeast, the [|Yoruba] who are predominant in the southwest. The [|Benin tribes] are predominant in the region between [|Yorubaland] and the [|Niger Delta]. 80 percent of the Benins tend to be [|Christian] while the remaining 20 percent worship deities called [|Ogu]. These are followed by the [|Ibibio]/[|Annang]/[|Efik] people of the coastal southeastern Nigeria and the [|Ijaw] of the Niger Delta.

Social Problems
 * ~ Rank ||~ State ||~ Population ||
 * 1 || [|Lagos State] || 15,000,000 ||
 * 2 || [|Kano State] || 9,383,682 ||
 * 3 || [|Kaduna State] || 6,066,562 ||
 * 4 || [|Katsina State] || 5,792,578 ||
 * 5 || [|Oyo State] || 5,591,589 ||
 * 6 || [|Rivers State] || 5,185,400 ||
 * 7 || [|Bauchi State] || 4,676,465 ||
 * 8 || [|Jigawa State] || 4,348,649 ||
 * 9 || [|Benue State] || 4,219,244 ||
 * 10 || [|Anambra State] || 4,182,032 ||
 * 11 || [|Borno State] || 4,151,193 ||
 * 12 || [|Delta State] || 4,098,391 ||
 * 13 || [|Imo State] || 3,934,899 ||
 * 14 || [|Niger State] || 3,950,249 ||
 * 15 || [|Akwa Ibom State] || 3,920,208 ||
 * 16 || [|Ogun State] || 3,728,098 ||
 * 17 || [|Sokoto State] || 3,696,999 ||
 * 18 || [|Ondo State] || 3,441,024 ||
 * 19 || [|Osun State] || 3,423,535 ||
 * 20 || [|Kogi State] || 3,278,487 ||
 * 21 || [|Zamfara State] || 3,259,846 ||
 * 22 || [|Enugu State] || 3,257,298 ||
 * 23 || [|Kebbi State] || 3,238,628 ||
 * 24 || [|Edo State] || 3,218,332 ||
 * 25 || [|Plateau State] || 3,178,712 ||
 * 26 || [|Adamawa State] || 3,168,101 ||
 * 27 || [|Cross River State] || 2,888,966 ||
 * 28 || [|Abia State] || 2,833,999 ||
 * 29 || [|Ekiti State] || 2,384,212 ||
 * 30 || [|Kwara State] || 2,371,089 ||
 * 31 || [|Gombe State] || 2,353,879 ||
 * 32 || [|Yobe State] || 2,321,591 ||
 * 33 || [|Taraba State] || 2,300,736 ||
 * 34 || [|Ebonyi State] || 2,173,501 ||
 * 35 || [|Nasarawa State] || 1,863,275 ||
 * 36 || [|Bayelsa State] || 1,703,358 ||
 * - || [|Abuja Federal Capital Territory] || 1,405,201 ||

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