What do you know about Nigeria in social, political and economy?

Answer 1

Nigeria is one of the largest and most influential African countries. It has 133 million people. Like most of Africa, it's not in great shape: it is poor and has substantial strife and conflict.

Nigeria has rich natural resources, but they are not being used effectively. Its economy consists of mostly agriculture. It does have substantial manufacturing plants, from foreign companies that located plants there because of cheap labor. It also has some oil production--and this production has been a source of great tension and violence. What economy it has has had devastating impacts on the environment--oil spills and natural gas flaring--a wasteful and destructive practice.

The culture of Nigeria is very complex and it is hard to summarize in a short paragraph. Nigeria has a rich history going back thousands of years, including a rich tradition of mathematics that continues to this day. Nigeria has a number of universities, and produces, in contrast to many other poor African nations, a number of prominent and successful academics, including a number of mathematicians. However, education as a whole is still not in great shape--only 29% of the population attends secondary school, and the literacy rate is 68%, (both rates are worse for women).

Like most African countries, Nigeria was devastated by colonial rule--in this case under the British. It established independence in 1960, but it went through periods of military rule. It is currently democratic but its democracy is young and not particularly solid.

This is just a quick summary...I'd especially recommend the CIA factbook to get hard data; I've included the link, as well as a link to wikipedia.

Answer 2

Nigeria is very corrupt! Full of scams and bad people trying to get over!


Economy
Main article: Economy of Nigeria
Years of military rule, corruption, and mismanagement have hobbled economic activity and output in Nigeria and continue to do so, despite the restoration of democracy and subsequent economic reform. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit and the World Bank, Nigerian GDP at purchasing power parity was only at $170.7 billion as of FY 2005. The GDP per head is at $692. [2]

Nigeria is a leading petroleum producer and exporter. It is the 12th largest producer of petroleum in the world and the 8th largest exporter. Nigeria also has one of the world's largest proven natural gas and petroleum reserves and is a founding member of OPEC. However, due to crumbling infrastructure, ongoing civil strife in the Niger Delta- its main oil producing region- and corruption, oil production and export is not at 100% capacity.

Mineral resources that are present in Nigeria but not yet fully exploited are coal and tin. Other natural resources in the country include iron ore, limestone, niobium, lead, zinc, and arable land. Despite huge deposits of these natural resources, the mining industry in Nigeria is almost non-existent. About 60% of Nigerians are employed in the agricultural sector. Agriculture used to be the principal foreign exchange earner of Nigeria. Perhaps, one of the worst undesirable effects of the discovery of oil was the decline of agricultural sector. So tragic was this neglect that Nigeria, which in the 1960s grew 98% of his own food and was a net food exporter, now must import much of the same cash crops it was formerly famous for as the biggest exporter. Agricultural products include groundnuts, palm oil, cocoa, coconut, citrus fruits, maize, millet, cassava, yams and sugar cane. It also has a booming leather and textile industry, with industries located in Kano, Abeokuta, Onitsha, and Lagos.

Like many Third World nations, Nigeria has accumulated a significant foreign debt. However many of the projects financed by these debts were inefficient, bedevilled by corruption or failed to live up to expectations. Nigeria defaulted on its debt as arrears and penalty interest accumulated and increased the size of the debt. However, after a long campaign by the Nigeria authorities, in October 2005 Nigeria and its Paris Club creditors reached an agreement that will see Nigeria's debt reduced by approximately 60%. Nigeria will use part of its oil windfall to pay the residual 40%. This deal will free up at least $1.15 billion annually for poverty reduction programmes. As of April 2006, Nigeria became the first African Country to fully pay off her debt (estimated $30billion) owed to the Paris Club.

The currency unit of Nigeria is the Nigerian Naira.

Nigeria also has significant production and manufacturing facilities such as factories for Peugeot the French car marker, Bedford the English truck manufacturer, now a subsidiary of General Motors, and also manufactures t-shirts and processed food.