Nigeria

E

State and Local Governments

Nigeria is divided into 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. State governments consist of an elected governor, a deputy governor chosen by the governor, and a directly elected state assembly. The governor also nominates commissioners, who are confirmed by the assembly. The Federal Capital Territory is headed by a minister, who is appointed by the president.

The creation of new states has been a periodic feature of Nigerian life since 1967, when 12 states replaced the previous 4 regions. The creation of new states was immensely popular in previously neglected areas, which were given a greater share of oil wealth and other development. As a result, Nigerians routinely call for more states, using arguments about the ethnic and population balance to bolster their economic motivations. The federal government has responded by creating seven new states plus the Federal Capital Territory in 1976, two more in 1987, nine in 1991, and six in 1996. As the states have become smaller, they have become less viable and more dependent on federal government transfers.

As in the case of the states, there has been continuous lobbying for new local government areas, which in 1997 numbered more than 700. Until 1976, traditional authorities controlled local governments, but reforms have since relegated traditional rulers to a mostly ceremonial role. In their place are democratically elected government councils with responsibility for things such as primary health care and primary education.

F

Defense

Nigeria’s defense forces, which peaked at 300,000 at the end of the civil war in 1970, had 78,500 personnel in 2004, which was still large and expensive compared to the region’s other countries. The army numbered 62,000 with major divisions based in Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Kaduna, and Jos. The air force consisted of 9,500 personnel in four air commands, in Ikeja (near Lagos), Kaduna, Ibadan, and Makurdi. The 7,000-person navy is centered in Lagos and Calabar and has been strengthened in recent years to provide security for oil installations. The Nigerian Defence Academy is located at Kaduna. Nigeria has participated in peacekeeping operations of the United Nations (UN). It has also provided the majority of soldiers for the joint West African peacekeeping force in Liberia (since 1990) and Sierra Leone (from 1997 until 2000, when a UN peacekeeping force that included many Nigerian troops took over). Military service is voluntary.

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G

Social Services

Nigeria has no state-supported social welfare system. Instead, most people rely on their extended families in difficult times and in old age. Medical care is provided to government employees and to most workers in large industrial and commercial enterprises, but it is wanting among the rest of the population. Despite several attempts at reform, many Nigerians lack access to primary health care, in large part because the great majority of treatment centers are located in large cities. Facilities are often understaffed, underequipped, and low on medications and other medical supplies. Patients must generally pay user fees and buy their own supplies and medications, which they often cannot afford.

The result has been an infant mortality rate of 94 per 1,000 live births and a life expectancy of 48 years. Malaria is the leading cause of death and is likely to remain so, due to the growing resistance both of the malarial parasite to drugs as well as of the mosquito, which transmits malaria, to insecticides. Other preventable ills that the government has been unable to halt include measles, whooping cough, polio, cerebrospinal meningitis, gastroenteritis, diarrhea, tuberculosis, bronchitis, waterborne infectious diseases such as schistosomiasis, and sexually transmitted infections. Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is becoming more and more prevalent. In 2005 2.6 million Nigerians were estimated to be infected with HIV and 170,000 Nigerians died of AIDS.

H

International Organizations

At independence in 1960 Nigeria joined the United Nations (UN) and its affiliated agencies. It also joined the British Commonwealth of Nations. Its membership in the Commonwealth was suspended from 1995 to 1999 to protest human rights abuses and the slow rate of democratization by the Abacha government. Nigeria is also a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Nonaligned Movement (NAM). A founding member of the African Union (AU), Nigeria took the lead in opposing the apartheid regime in South Africa. It is also the dominant partner in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and a member of the African Development Bank and the Lake Chad Basin Commission.

VII

History

People have lived in what is now known as Nigeria since at least 9000 bc, and evidence indicates that since at least 5000 bc some of them have practiced settled agriculture. In the early centuries ad, kingdoms emerged in the drier, northern savanna, prospering from trade ties with North Africa. At roughly the same time, the wetter, southern forested areas yielded city-states and looser federations sustained by agriculture and coastal trade. These systems changed radically with the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th century, the rise of the slave trade from the 16th through the 19th century, and formal colonization by Britain at the end of 19th century. Nigeria achieved independence in 1960 but has since been plagued by unequal distribution of wealth and ineffective, often corrupt governments.

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