Africa A to Z: Continental and Country Profiles: Third Edition

Nigeria

COUNTRY PROFILES A-Z 304 Africa A-Z: Continental and Country Profiles | Africa Institute of South Africa Nigeria Orientation Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and the continent’s leading oil producer. Physically, it is the largest of the Western African countries fronting on the Gulf of Guinea. Nigeria’s most prominent natural feature is the Y-shaped river system formed by the Niger River and its main tributary, the Benue. The Niger is Africa’s third largest river, flowing through Nigeria on the last third of its course to the sea. The river has built an extensive delta, protruding into the Gulf of Guinea. On both sides of the delta is a large bay, the Bight of Benin on the west and the Bight of Biafra on the east. Numerous other rivers flow into the sea, forming lagoons fringed by mangrove swamps. The largest of these lagoons stretches from the harbour of Lagos to Cotonou in neighbouring Benin. The climate in the coastlands, on both sides of the delta, is equatorial with high temperatures and abundant rainfall throughout the year (about 2000 mm on average). The coastal plateau continues inland, forming the Yoruba uplands to the west while flanked by the Adamawa mountain ranges to the east. Rising to over 2 000 metres, the Adamawa Mountains on the border with Cameroon are the highest terrain in both countries. More than 60% of Nigeria’s total surface area lies to the north of the Y-junction formed by the Niger and Benue rivers. In this northern region the land rises gradually to a series of vast plateaux, covered by savanna vegetation, with rainfall much lower than in the south. The highest terrain in the north is the Jos Plateau, lying about 2 000 m above sea level. People Nigeria’s population of around 130 million accounted for about 16% of Africa’s total population in 2002. At an annual growth rate of between 2.1 and 2.5% a total Nigerian population of over 200 million is projected for 2025. A new census was planned for 2006, though census counts in Nigeria have always been politically sensitive because of its implications for ethnic balance, electoral competition and the allocation of federal revenue to the states that make up the Nigerian federation. Nigeria has a very young population (over 40% of the total population being under age 15) which has serious implications for future employment and the provision of government services. Nigeria’s population is more or less evenly divided between the northern, COUNTRY PROFILES A-Z Africa Institute of South Africa | Africa A-Z: Continental and Country Profiles 305 southwestern and southeastern parts of the country; the most densely populated areas are in the southeast to the east of the Niger Delta. More than 40% of the total poulation is urbanised with the largest urban concentrations around Lagos and Ibadan in the southwest, Port Harcourt in the southeast and in the Kano-Kaduna area in the north. Lagos, the former federal capital, is the country’s largest business centre, with a current population of around 15 million in the Lagos urban agglomeration. Since 1991 the federal capital has been at Abuja, a newly constructed city, more or less in the centre of the country. Consisting of some 250 distinct ethnic groups, Nigerian society is among the world’s ethnically most diverse. Three main ethnic groupings, the northern Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba of the southwest and the Ibo of the southeast, account for about two-thirds of the total population. The majority of the people in the north, including the Hausa-Fulani, are Muslims; Christians predominate in the south and account for about 40 per cent of the total population. English is the country’s official language, though Hausa is widely spoken in the north. Economy Nigeria has a dual economy based on petroleum production and agriculture. Petroleum production started from the late 1950s and is extracted, together with natural gas, in the Niger Delta and from the seabed in the Gulf of Guinea. The oil is of a high quality and sought after on the world oil market. However, fluctuations in the world oil price over the last decades have affected the country detrimentally at times and prompted the government to borrow money from foreign lending institutions, resulting in over US$30 billion in international debt by 2003. Nevertheless, the Nigerian oil industry has grown into Africa’s largest oil industry, producing around 2 million barrels...