Explore Nigeria: Rich in Wildlife and Culture - Essay Sample

Introduction

Nigeria is an African country located around the Gulf of Guinea that has many wildlife reserves and natural landmarks. The nation also has protected areas like the Yankari National Park and the Cross River National Park because of the existence of the savanna, dense rainforest, waterfalls and rare primate environments. One site that is highly recognized in Nigeria is the Zuma rock, which is located outside the capital city. The nation has a diversified range of people with a hundred languages. A few of the styles include English, Tiv, Ibibo, Edo, Hausa, Fula, Igbo, and Yoruba (Odunuga and Badru 302). The capital city of Nigeria is Abuja, and this is where the Federal Capital Territory was developed. Lagos, which was the former capital, remained standing as the nation's leading industrial and commercial city. The essay will give a breakdown of Nigeria's agriculture, demographics, economy, agricultural trade and policy, agreements, and the government and politics at large.

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The topography of Nigeria has plains seen from the south and north but interrupted by hills and plateaus in the centre of the nation. The Sokoto plains, for instance, are at the northwestern corner while the Borno plains at the northeastern. The basin of Lake Chad and the coastal area, such as the Sokoto region and Niger River is found in the northwest. Nigeria also has diverse geography consisting of climates ranging from humid to arid equatorial (Odunuga and Badru 312). Such land characteristics have made Nigeria grow economically due to agriculture and petroleum.

The Economy of Nigeria

Nigeria has one of the biggest economies in Africa. From the 1960s, the nation has been depending on petroleum. Since 1973, a series of world oil increased the economic status of Nigeria through construction, manufacturing, government services, and transportation (Carol 1511). Since this development leads to the migration of rural people to urban areas, production in agriculture stagnated to the point that cash crops like peanuts, palm oil, and cotton lost their value on export. However, the system of selling petroleum worked well because revenues were still increasing until 1970 when the agricultural sector became worse because of the crisis caused by the fluctuation of rapid population growth and world oil markets (Carol 1518). Even though the people still engaged in farming, the little food they produced increased the costs of imports. The government on seeing this banned agricultural imports and made the citizens focus on indigenization and farming plans.

Agriculture in Nigeria

Nigeria does not have enough arable land because of the shortage of farmlands caused by the settlement of people around the southeastern areas such as Sokoto, Katsina, and Kano. As a result, large numbers of the Hausa, Ibibio, and Igbo migrated to the remaining parts of the country (Schreurs et al., 346). However, the cultural traditions such as selling family land had restrictions accessing the farmlands because the people around there were protecting the abundant cultivable land. In the far north, on the other hand, there was no cultivation because of severe desertification. About half of Nigerians earn their living through agriculture. Most of them were small-scale farmers because they produced little surplus to sell.

Some of them were also getting money from cash crops while making local crafts sales. Since the soil was amenable, the matchet and hoe was the dominant farm implements used during farming (Schreurs et al., 351). The limited access to land and the shortage of farmland also restricted farmland cultivation that took place for every family. Environmental deterioration, weak transport system, inferior storage facilities, general stagnation, and lack of enough capital to farm led to the recession of the area. However, the population rapidly grew when urbanization accelerated after the government fixed the situation.

Root crops such as cassava, taro, and yams are the primary food in the south, while the north consumed legumes and grains like corn, cowpeas, millet, and sorghum. Rice was also an essential domestic crop to both ends (Schreurs et al., 359). Notably, trees such as oil palm, rubber trees, and cacao were principal crops in the south, while the north was fond of cotton and peanuts. Small scale farmers in both areas dominated the production of industrial plants as their staple foods. Cacao trees produced cocoa beans as agricultural products used for export.

Government and Politics

In Nigeria, the federal government is composed of three branches: the judicial, executive, and legislative, whose powers come from the president, national assembly, the federal courts, supreme courts, and the constitution of Nigeria (Naish 165). The government also consists of two tiers- the local and state. The role of the government, which is at the local level, is usurped by the state government. In the past, the federal government was the one that allowed the provincial government to release funds used for development.

The Framework of the Constitutions

In 1999 the executive power vested its powers form the president who by then served as the chief of executive and the head of state when he was under the four-year term (Naish 169). The president had power over nominates, members of the cabinet, and the vice president. The constitution of Nigeria has a bicameral national assembly that was run by the senate and the house of Representatives. Each state, in this case, chooses ten members for a four-year term at the government (Naish 173). The same team also selects three other members for each country to join the federal capital territory for a four-year term.

The Local Government

The country has 36 states and one Federal Capital Territory, where Abuja is the capital city. The constitution has a provision of several states that are created on-demand. During independence, the country got divided into three regions: The Western, Northern, and the Eastern. In 1963, the Western part formed the Mid-West Region. By 1967, Col. Yakubu late converted the areas into 12 states: three in the east, six in the north and three in the west (Naish 178). In 1976 General Ibrahim Bagandiga, on the other hand, added seven more states. By 1996 the number of countries reached thirty.

The Political Process

All citizens that are above 18 years are allowed to vote. By 1960, the northern people's progress and the Action group were the only Nigerian parties available. However, since most of them focused nationally than regionally, the AG was then made to represent the NPC in the north, the Cameroons in the east, and the National Council for Nigeria (Naish 184). By 1993, the political party became national rather than regional because of legal laws developed by the people democratic party, the Nigeria People's Party, and the Alliance for Democracy. Since then, most developed parties such as the Progressive Grand Alliance, the Progressive Congress, and the Labor Party were formed (Naish 198).

The Demographics in Nigeria

Nigeria is one country that is densely populated as compared to other countries in Africa, with about 200 million citizens who live in a 920,000-kilometer square area (Campbell and Okuwa 316). The country is also the seven largest population globally and the second-largest in Africa. About 50 per cent of Nigerians live in the urban suburbs. However, the nation is home to 250 ethnic groups and over 500 languages. A variety of them was formed due to traditions and customs during the tremendous cultural diversity. The largest ethnic groups in Nigeria include the Yoruba with 21% population, Igbo with 14%, and the Hausa with 27.4% (Campbell and Okuwa 321). The Annang, Ijaw, Ibibio, and the Efik fill the Southern, eastern part of the country. Nigeria has a high dependency ratio, where 88.2 dependents rely on 100 non-dependents.

The country consists of three main religions, including Muslims who have the same percentage as the Christians and the indigenous belief that cover only ten per cent. In Igbo land, Roman Catholicism is the largest Christian group followed by Anglicanism, Evangelic, and Pentecostal denominations (Campbell and Okuwa 329). People from different backgrounds whose common language is English also know more than two Nigerian languages. However, the most commonly used words in Nigeria include Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa. For any private information, they use the Nigerian Pidgin, particularly in cities like Port Harcourt, Benin, Ughelli, Warri, and Sapele.

Economic Status

Nigeria is a middle-income country that has an emerging market and mixed economy with expanding financial, technology, entertainment, and commercial sectors. The country is also ranked as the 27th largest in the economics and the 22nd most abundant nation in purchasing power parity. Even though the government has a large economy in Africa, it has a re-emergent manufacturing sector that became the largest in Africa in 2013 because of the production of large portions of services and goods in the West African subcontinent. Moreover, by 2019, the debt ration of Nigeria against the GDP was 16.075 per cent (Carol 1518).

The purchasing power parity of Nigeria is between 170 billion dollars to 451 billion but through the informal sector. However, the GDP per capita when up to 1400 dollars per person to 3900 dollars per person. Such figures are prone to go higher only if the data are revised upwards by 80 per cent when the metrics can be recalculated again. Even though the revenues collected from oil contribute to 2/3rd of the total earnings, oil contributes approximately nine per cent to the GDP (Carol 1522). Appendix A elaborates more on Nigeria's GDP from 1960 to 2018.

In comparison with Russia, the United States, and Saudi Arabia, Nigeria produces about 2.7 per cent in oil production. The agricultural sector before has not maintained the rapid population growth, but today, the country imports food through mechanization. This process has also enabled Nigeria to lead resurgence in exporting and manufacturing food products, which made food to be sufficient for consumption (Carol 1534). Due to this, the country agreed with the Paris Club and bought back the debts they had in exchange for cash payment.

Agricultural Trade

The primary driver of Nigeria's agricultural goods import is wheat. By 2018, trade-in agricultural goods had a deficit of N548 billion because the country was importing more agrarian products than exporting (Coker et al., 157). The amount made of farm commodities between Nigeria and other nations, the nation imports about 73.82 per cent and exports about 26.18 per cent. Data released by the National Bureau Statistics revealed that in 2018, Nigeria imported goods worth N852.11 billion a slight decrease when compared to 2017 (Coker et al., 161). The figure, however, when compared to 2016, was an increase where the revenues were N656.4 billion.

In the first quarter of 2018, the country's agricultural useful export was N3.25 billion. However, the total cost of imports has made the country suffer because they spent about N184.49 billion. In other words, the nation accounted for N257.74 billion in total trade in 2018. The same year the whole business of agricultural goods is approximately N310.4 billion, where both the imports and exports are reported to be N85.9 billion and N224.5 billion, respectively (Coker et al., 163). The pie chart in appendix A elaborates more on how agricultural trade takes place on Nigeria.

Agricultural Policy

The agricultural policies in Nigeria have gone through a metamorphosis as the country developed beginning for the post-colonial era of 1963 (Coker et al., 166). During this time, the nation's strategy was based on the extraction of surplus. However, the policy was then transformed into an export-led strategy to improve the economy of the...