Nigeria is a country located in West Africa. It has an area of 923,768 square kilometers and a population of approximately 200 million people. The ethnic composition of Nigeria is mainly Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo, with other minority groups including Fulani, Ijaw and Kanuri. The majority of the population are adherents to Islam, with around 50% following the religion and the rest being either Christian or other faiths. Education is compulsory for children up to the age of 15 and the literacy rate is estimated to be around 60%. The official language is English but there are also many other languages spoken throughout the country such as Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. The capital city Abuja has an estimated population of over 2 million people making it the largest city in Nigeria. Check hyperrestaurant to learn more about Nigeria in 2009.
Social conditions
At the beginning of the 1980s, Nigeria was one of Africa’s richest countries and counted as the world’s middle-income countries. Visit AbbreviationFinder to see the definitions of NG and acronym for Nigeria. Since then, the country has stagnated in the international prosperity league, and today Nigeria is among the 40 countries in the world with the lowest per capita GDP. The proportion of poor people increased significantly during the 1990s.
The social and regional differences in prosperity are significant. Oil revenues have meant that a small number of more or less corrupt Nigerians in or in connection with the state apparatus have become very rich. However, the majority of the population lives in very poor conditions in rural areas, where housing shortages, malnutrition and diseases pose permanent problems.
Nearly 90% of Nigerians live in poverty (below $ 2 a day) and only four in ten in rural areas have access to clean water. Nearly one in ten children die during their first year of life and 40% of children are malnourished.
Public safety systems are rudimentary and public health care is insufficiently developed, especially in rural areas. There are four doctors (2008) and five hospital beds (2005) per 10,000 residents. Qualified personnel are available for less than half of the births. In 2009, 6% of public expenditure went to health care.
The most common tropical infectious and parasitic diseases include malaria, insomnia, river blindness, leprosy and meningitis. Attempts to eradicate polio in the region through vaccination campaigns have so far failed. About 4% of the population aged 15-49 is estimated to be affected by HIV/AIDS (2009). Check to see Nigeria population.
Displacement of the population by clearing neighborhoods is also a huge problem. During 2012, 10-20,000 people were displaced from their homes in Port Harcourt, Lagos and Abuja. Threats to, arrest and harassment of journalists are also widespread.
Boko Haram increased its activities in the north during 2012. In April, the movement on Easter Sunday set off a car bomb near two churches in Kaduna. At least 20 were killed. Later in the month, the movement bombed the newspaper This Day in Abuja and a building in Kaduna that housed 3 newspapers. At least 7 people were killed. A few days later, it broadcast threats to 11 national and international news media. In June, the movement bombed 3 churches in Kaduna. At least 21 were killed. The subsequent violence between Christians and Muslims cost an additional 70 lives. The military fought hard against Boko Haram with disappearances of suspected members, executions of suspected members, the burning down of houses of supposed sympathizers or members and detention of hundreds of people for long periods. Conditions criticized by Amnesty International.
In January 2013, the government allocated DKK 4 million. US $ to clean up after a lead poisoning disaster in Zamfara state. After the gold price on the world market in 2012 hit US $ 1800 per share. ounces of local – despite bans – began extracting gold. The ore in the area was very lead and this lead escaped and contaminated water and soil. 400 children died and another 1,500 children had so high lead values in the body that it would cause brain damage and other problems for them.
Goodluck Jonathan’s plans to run for re-election in the 2015 presidential election and passing by office led in August 2013 to a split in the ruling party PDP. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and 7 state governors formed a faction in the party, and the president responded again by firing the Secretary of State, Minister of Education and Planning. Jonathan’s plans posed serious danger of destroying the religious balance of the country, alternately being a Muslim and a Christian being presiding.
In January 2014, the government introduced a law against homosexuals that banned gay relationships, club membership, relationships and marriage. The penalty frame for marriage was set at 14 years and for other matters it was 10 years. In short order, federal police had collected the names of 168 LGBT couples who would be arrested and placed on trial. The ideas of US Christian fundamentalists had reached Nigeria.
In September 2014, the South African customs authorities confiscated 9.3 million euros. US $ that 2 Nigerians and 1 Israelis had tried to smuggle into the country. The Nigerian government subsequently admitted that the money should be used for arms purchases in South Africa, but had no explanation for the secret circumstances in which the money had not been declared at the export of Nigeria or the import into South Africa. Goodluck Jonathan asked the South African authorities and Jacob Zuma directly to return the amount to the Nigerian government, which happened the following month. The plane carrying the money to South Africa was a private jet belonging to the Christian Association of Nigeria.
In the northern part of the country, Boko Haram intensified its offensive and the security situation became increasingly out of control. In May 2013, the president declared the northern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa in state of emergency, and although he had initially spoken of amnesty to Boko Haram members, in June he changed his stance and required at least 20 years in prison for membership of the organization. However, the state of emergency did not slow down the rebels. In December, they attacked two military deployments and an air base. In January 2014, therefore, Goodluck fired the entire military leadership so as not to bring the insurgency under control.