Нигерия

The official name of Nigeria is Federal Republic of Nigeria. The

capital city is Abuja. The nigerian government is federal republic,

independent since 1960. The civilian constitution of the Second Republic,

with a US-style president, senate and house of representatives, was

suspended when the military took over on December 31, 1983.

The population is more than 100 millions of people. More than 50% of

them are Christians, and less than 45% are Muslims. The official language

of Negeria is English, but there also exist a variety of local languages.

The coastline, much of it bordered by mangrove swamp, is intersected

by numerious creeks; the southeast coast, dominated by the Niger river

delta, is the location of the offshore oil reserves. Inland lies an area of

tropical rain forest nd bush. Savannah and woodland cover much of the

central upland area; the Jos plateau is the watershed of hundreds of

streams and rivers flowing as far as Lake Chad and the Niger and Benue

rivers. The far north, bordering with Sahara, is mainly savannah.

Spectacular highlands line the eastern border with Cameroon. The highest

point is Vogel peak of 2040 meters, and total area is over 924000 sq km.

Democratically elected governments have so far proved unequal to the

task of managing this unruly nation of more than 100 millions people;

civilians have ruled for a total of only 10 years since independence in

1960. The most recent civilian government, that of President Shehu Shagari,

lasted four years before the military took power again in 1983. The

idealistic and rigid General Muhammadu Buhari was in turn replaced in a

bloodless coup two years later by the more genial and pragmatic General

Ibrahim Babangida.

Babangida’s task was made more complex by the collapse of oil prices

in early 1986. Oil earnings, which accounted over 97% of export revenue,

were halved to $6.1bn in just one year.

Oil production started in the late 1950s, rising steadily tp apeak of

2.4m barrels a day at the start of 1980s. Agriculture was neglected and

construction boomed as the oil money flowed in. Cocoa exports were halved,

cotton and groundnut exports all but ceased and the public developed a

taste for new imported foods. Foreign contractors lined up to build the oil

refineries, steel works and vehicle assembly lines that were to ensure

Nigeria’s industrial future.

By the mid-1980s Nigeria was saddled with foreign debt of $26bn with

few of its investments in industry or infrastructure starting to pay their

way. The Babangida government lost little time in introducing drastic

policy changes. Inessential and many essential imports were banned,

agricultural marketing was put into private hands, a foreign exchange

auction system was introduced, resulting in a rapid devaluation of the

overvalued naira, and an extensive programme of privatization was

announced. The government’s econoic measures were generally in accordance

with IMF recommendations although negotiations about conditional fund loans

had broken down. The realtionship between Nigeria and its creditors has

been a rocky one, but many foreign aid donors have been sympathetic to its

aims and large loans from bodies like the World Bank havve helped ease the

path to reform.

The new policies soon started to show results. Cash-crop exports

revived, as did production of traditional food crops. Industry bore the

brunt of recession and the constraints of inports, and was working at

barely 30% of capacity in 1988. For the Nigerian in he street, economic

adjustment has meant high unemployment, rising inflation and a general

decline in living standarts.

With its economic reforms under way, the Babangida government is

talking of a return to civilian ruke in 1992. To this end, it has set out a

complex timetable of regional and legislatie elections, from which all

former politicians have been excluded.