Demographic And Political Trends Of Nigeria Essay

What is surprising by most is how Africa is one of the largest known continents and being one of the richest when it comes to natural resources. However, the countries that make up Africa and the people living in these countries are known to be living in devastating poverty. How can it be that this plentiful continent of natural resources, Africa’s people are living in poverty and living in the poorest conditions? With Africa being such a rich continent of natural resources why are the countries within Africa so poor? Take for instance, the countries Ghana and Nigeria There are many countries within Africa but the main focus will be on the country of Ghana and the country of Nigeria. Both countries are poor and the people there are in poverty. Ghana has been struggling with poverty and being poor for quite some time and has been slowly trying to work its way out of poverty. In an article called “Microenterprise financing preference” There have been some laws now put in place to try and reverse the poverty and help Ghana. (Osei‐Assibey, E., Bokpin, G. A., & Twerefou, D. K., 2012). Nigeria has also been quit poor for some time and the people struggling with poverty.

There has never been an accurate population census in Nigeria rather what the nation always has are inflated figures full of controversies, manipulation and friction owing to politicization such exercise suffice it to assert omitted the usually defeated and truncated the last enumeration which took place in March 2006 is the reason d’ etve for this study.

On page 425, Obzine says, “When I started in real estate, I considerd renovating the old houses instead of tearing them down, but it didn’t make sense. Nigerian don’t buy houses because they’re old. A renovated two-hundred-year-old mill granary,you know, the kind of things Europeans like. It doesn’t work here at all. But of course it makes sense because we are Third Worlders and Third Worlders are forward looking, we like things to be new, because our best is still ahead, while the West their best is already past and so they have to make a fetish of that past.” Now this a very powerful and analytical quote about development and perceptions of the developing world, and I am sure we could have an entire discussion on this one quote alone, so I add a few comments because I think it underlines some themes in the novel.

Niger, home of the free flowing Niger River is a Sub-Saharan country. Sadly it is an extremely poor country. With part of the country desert and less than 3% open for crop use. The present economic situation is bleak at best. Yet, the vibrant tradition and history of this country live today in its tribes and its people even through all of its adversities. From severe droughts to military coups to a dysfunctional government to the culture has stayed strong.

Nigeria’s current health indicators demonstrate its present health issues. The current life expectancy per total population is 53.02 years, for males it’s 52 and for females it’s estimated at 54.1 years (Central Intelligence Agency, 2016). When looking at the infant mortality,

Nigeria is the most crowded nation in Africa, it is in the west coast of Africa. It has about 120 million people living there, is the largest group of Africans Ireland. Nigeria is a federal republic country and has 37 states, which practice strict Muslim laws in 12 of the states. It’s considered to be the world’s 32nd largest country. The north side of the country is the Hausa and the Fulanses, the more dominated part, the west is the Yorubas, then the east is the Igbos and Calabaro. (Nigeria, 2013).

Imperialism has set our country back half a century. When the British came in in 1910 and colonized our country, Nigeria, it changed everything. Our education system was negatively affected. Our country became extremely controversial in a religious aspect. All in all, if the British did not come and colonize our home, our country would be at a much better place today.

The West African nation of Nigeria is rich in oil and natural resources. However, ongoing internal conflicts hinder the country from benefitting from its natural wealth. Since its independence in 1960, Nigeria had two coups and various violent protracted conflicts. The major conflicts in the country are religious, ethnic, economic, and political. However, ethnic and religious conflicts alone claim thousands of lives and affect the country's economy enormously. Grievance over power distribution and wealth allocation between the Muslim dominated north, and the Christian dominated south created a dip division among the two religious groups. Military rule, poor governance, and corruption also became major impediments for the economic growth and peacebuilding in the country. In addition to exacerbating poverty, bad governance is often cited for the rise of religious and ethnic conflicts in Nigeria. In this short essay, I discuss the role of religion in the ongoing conflicts of Nigeria. I also discuss the different factors that exacerbate the religious conflict. The essay also discusses how the teachings of Islam and Christianity are used to transform the conflict. Examples are drawn from conflict transformation effort by two religious leaders, Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammad Ashafa. The essay finishes with a brief conclusion.

“This essay will be written on Nigeria during the independence era to the present time of the country. What will be discussed about Nigeria is how they achieved their development, how they are now currently the African continent’s top economy. “The discussion that will be in this essay is the theories used after Independence in Nigeria to obtain development. Nigeria is also known for the country’s population growth; population growth has its advantage which has a positive impact on the country’s economic growth as it causes demand for products and also leads to an upsurge in human a country which is why Nigeria today is leading with their economic growth.” “Nigeria is a country endowed with human, agricultural, petroleum, gas and large untapped mineral resources” Nigeria was once a colonialized country, they managed to obtain their Independence. According to (Babs,1977) Nigeria is mostly likely referred as the “Giant of Africa” because of its population, the country is also culturally diverse and has a large economic growth in Africa.” Nigeria has relatively advanced power, road, rail and ICT networks that cover the national territory quite extensively, Nigeria has a good progress in their infrastructure and sanitation”

An estimated 50 percent of Nigerians are Muslim, 40 percent are Christian with the remainder practicing various indigenous religions. Nigeria’s Muslim community presides in all parts of the country with the strongest accumulation in the Hausa and Yoruba ethnic groups. Islam in Nigeria is based on the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad outlined in the Qur’an with varying differences from the rest of the Islamic community. The vast majority of Igbo are Christians as are many of the Yoruba. Popular forms of Christianity include Anglican, Presbyterian, American Southern Baptist, and Methodist with large congregations of Seventh - day Adventist and Jehovah’s Witness across the country.

Due to this fact of rising poverty levels, the UNDP Human Development assessment reported that infant mortality per 1000 live births was as high as 112. Life expectancy was 50.1 year. About 43% of Nigerians lack access to safe drinking water and 37% of Nigerians lack access to sanitation; 40% lack access to public health and the gross enrolment ratio for combined primary, secondary and tertiary education was 43%, 37% for females and 48% for males (http://www.antiessays.com).

Since the millennium declaration, Nigeria and many other countries are not on track to attaining the targets for reducing child mortality and improving maternal health. (WHO) let alone sustaining it after 2015. About 1 million children under the age of 5years die every year. That translates into 114 deaths every hour. Report states that, “One out of every four of these deaths (about 250,000) is of a newborn—a baby less than one month old”. (UNFPA, 2011)

According to the United nations, Nigeria is one of the few countries experiencing a ‘Youth Bulge’ (a phenomenon whereby the country’s largest population group is below the age of 24) and it is estimated that by 2025, 25% of world youth population will be found in Africa alone as the continent tends towards urbanization (Zille and Benjamin, 2011), a situation which will greatly affect Nigeria and its high youth population due to the increasing rate of unemployment in the country.

Since the return to civil democratic rule in 1999, Nigeria has witnessed the relative deterioration of its internal security. This is worrisome because internal security crisis is inherent with tendencies that threaten national unity and the peace of the state. This research attempts a critical analysis of the causative of the relative insecurity in Nigeria in relation to the problem of policing in Jos which is located in the northern region of Nigeria.

indicates an annual growth rate of 0.1% and with an improvement in medical infrastructure with the usual fertility trend; it was about 2% in the 1960s.The Nigeria population growth rate achieve the 3% point between 1963 and 1973 and was projected to reach 4% between 1983 and 1993 which was proved to be overestimated by 1993 census. The 1993 census was put at 88.5million with an estimated growth rate of 2.5% which characterized the entire region of Nigeria. The 2006 population census put the nation population at 140million with an estimated growth rate of about 3% (Ojo, 1997; Fajana, 2000).