Nigeria Profile

Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa and the seventh most populous nation in the world with 218.5 million citizens (2022), is situated in West Africa with a coast line on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Benin to its west, Chad and Cameroon to its east and Niger to the north. As ever, following independence from the UK on 1st October 1960, political instability ensued with coups and counter coups many of which were due to various ethnic groups wanting independence from a country they held little allegiance to and, even today, Nigeria suffers from ongoing ethnic, tribal and religious tensions that regularly spill out into open conflict. These tensions reflect the fact that most Nigerians see themselves as belonging to the Yoruba (westerners), Igbo (easterners) and Hausa (northerners) rather than Nigeria itself.

The situation is most chronic in the north-east of the country with regular attacks against Christians being carried out by Boko Haram, a fundamentalist Islamic group with suspected links to with Al Qaeda, who are committed to the establishment of strict Sharia law throughout Nigeria. Cont/...

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Nigeria Profile

Nigeria Profile

Nigeria Profile

Nigeria Profile

 


Nigerian History

Nigerian History

The history about Nigeria told in pictures and video exploring the country's challenges.
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Volunteer Nigeria

African Volunteer Work: Nigeria

Check out all the latest fee paying and free volunteer work placements with local projects in Nigeria.
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Nigeria Quiz

Nigeria Quiz

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Nigeria Profile

Nigeria Profile

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Despite significant oil wealth, most of which bypasses the population into the hands of wealthy oil companies resulting in the establishment of groups such as MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) which is committed to taking the oil industry back for the local Nigerian people and using revenues to help clear up the environmental disaster in the Delta, 40%, or 83 million, Nigerians live in poverty (2020).

Nigeria is in 161st place out of 191 countries and territories in 2021 when ranked in terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge and the living standards of a country.

In terms of education, the Nigerian government reported in 2021 that an estimated 10,193,918 children were out school making Nigeria the country with the highest number of Out-of-School Children in sub-Sahara Africa. There are many reasons for this, however a major factor is the number of children (an estimated twelve million between the ages of 10-14yrs) who are forced into domestic servitude; some even sold to keep their family's head above water with Gabon, Cameroon, Niger, Italy, Spain, Benin and Saudi Arabia being known destinations.

Some parents sell their children in the belief that they will have a better life away from often single houses in urban areas that are home to up to ten other families with no private space, bedrooms and shared sanitation facilities. Most Nigerian woman have 5.32 children (2019).

For more about Nigeria check out our profile articles above.

 
 


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