Nigeria Country Profile

Political and Socio-Economic Situation�

Nigeria, a West African country covers an area of 923,768 square kilometers, with an estimated 4,049 kilometers of land boundaries, which are difficult to control and shared with Cameroon in the East, Niger republic in the North and Chad in the North Eastern part, and Benin Republic in the west. Nigeria's Southern border is the 1,600 nautical kilometers long coastline, beginning from the border with Benin republic in the west and extending Eastwards to the border with Cameroon, offering many opportunities for illegal shipment of drugs through the thick belt of mangrove swamps along the shore. Stretching northwards, the land becomes a continuous rainforest, which gradually merges with the woodland and Savanna in central Nigeria. The forest, swamp and woodland occupy about 12% of the land, with a substantial portion being inaccessible except with special vehicles (UNDP Nigeria, 1996). The Niger is the largest River and joined by Benue River to form a confluence at Lokoja. Added to these are more than 9,000 Kilometers of navigable inland waterways that lead from the hinterland to the country's seacoast (UNDCP Field office, 1999).

The country is a multi-ethnic Federation divided into 36 states and the Federal Capital territory at Abuja. There are more than 250 ethno-linguistic groups doting the large expanse of the country, but the three dominant groups are the Hausas living in the North, the Ibos in the Southeast, while the Yoruba are mainly in the Southwest.

With an estimated population of 117.1 million people (UNDP, 1990) and an annual population growth of 2.2% (UNDP, 2000), Nigeria is the most populous in Sub-Sahara Africa. It is believed that one in every four black person is a Nigerian.

However, the composition of the population is in the main youthful, with over 58% as young people below 18 years, and an increasing dependency ratio estimated at 87.7%. A large proportion of this population favors and is living in the rapidly expanding urban area, presently estimated at over 42.2% and will likely hit 55.4% mark by the year 2015 (UNDP, 2000).

The population dynamics display profound inequities and disproportions when analyzed with the development indicators, such as: 21 doctors per 100,000 people, infant mortality rate of 112 per 1000 live births, maternal mortality of over 980 per 100,000 live births, life expectancy at birth projected at 50.1 years, People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWA) is estimated at 5.4% of the population (mainly adults aged between 15 and 49 years), while total fertility rate is now 5.2, and contraceptive prevalence remains 6%. In the area of education, there is dearth of vital information, however, adult literacy rate is 61.1% while youth illiteracy rate (15-24 year) is estimated at least 15.3%.

There is high unemployment and underemployment, especially among the youth with spiraling poverty level in the country. At the moment, the national poverty line is estimated at 43% with over 70.2% of the people earning less than US 1$ a day.

In a 174-country world ranking, Nigeria is placed 151 in Human Development Index (HDI), 62 in the Human Poverty Index (HPI) among 85 countries, and 124 in Gender-related Development Index (GDI) among 143 countries. These indicators are indeed poor and overall, the country is rated among the low human development countries (UNDP, 2000).

The history of Nigeria reveals that agriculture was the mainstay of the economy prior to the attendance of independence in 1960. Agricultural produce was exported to the more developed sub-regions of the world for cash. However, this trend changed after the Nigeria civil war and by 1971, there was a shift from agriculture to petroleum. The value of agricultural products fell from more than US $1.5 billion to about US $0.3 billion between 1973 and 1981 (world Bank, 1982). Today agriculture constitutes only 31.7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Conversely, the rise in revenue from petroleum enabled past governments, especially in the 1970s and early 1980s, to embark on development programmes, which were directed at bringing about rapid improvements in the physical, social and economic well being of the population. This development gave impetus to rapid urban development and increased in-migrations from the rural areas. Most of the migrants had little or no education and lacked skills for employment in the formal sector of the economy. Against this trend, came the economic recession of the late 1980s, occasioned ostensibly by the fall in petro-dollar, astronomical inflationary rate at 38.7% and the concomitant depreciation of the currency.

Today, the economy is based on the monolithic product of petroleum, which accounts for more than 95% of the state earning, with a GNP of US $ 36.4 billion and GNP annual growth rate of 3.5%. The low-income earning labor force constitutes about 39.56% of the population, with women sharing less than 37% of that force. Notably too, the generators of primary income, remain traditional agriculture, the service sector and trading (UNICEF, 1995). The annual rate of inflation is now projected at 10.5% (UNDP, 2000).

The country is currently under a democratic political leadership after about 18 years of military dictatorship. By 1994/95, the country under the military government faced increasing political isolation. There was flagrant abuse of office by both the military leaders and the high echelon of civil service, with no accountability and probity. In consequence, the sanctions clamped on Nigeria by the European Union and the United States of America, as well as suspension of bilateral and multi-lateral assistance, denied the country access to vital development aid in the face of dwindling economic fortunes.

Invariably, military incursion into governance cost Nigeria valuable opportunities and time investments in both human and infrastructure development. However, the return to democratic rule signaled a favorable development environment and affirmed the resurgence of aid to the country from the international community, both by multi-lateral and bilateral donors.

Presently, international data is not available on the crime situation on Nigeria - people incarcerated, juvenile convictions, total crime recorded, total recorded drug offences and others. However, the locally obtained information shows that acquisitive crime (including armed robberies, thefts/stealing, burglaries and house/store breaking) and the offences of violence (including murders, assault and rape) constitute an average of 73.05% of all crimes reported to the police between 1994 and 1997. The acquisitive crimes with an average of 39.75% were higher than the offences of violence with an average of 33.29% during the same period.

In view of the prevalent political and socio-economic situation, a bourgeoning unemployed, underemployed and frustrated youthful population, the relatively porous borders and corruption of the security network, the country is ripe and burdened with drug abuse, drug trafficking and related crimes.�