Nigeria

British influence and control over what would become Nigeria and Africa's most populous country grew through the 19th century. A series of constitutions after World War II granted Nigeria greater autonomy. After independence in 1960, politics were marked by coups and mostly military rule, until the death of a military head of state in 1998 allowed for a political transition. In 1999, a new constitution was adopted and a peaceful transition to civilian government was completed.

The government continues to face the daunting task of institutionalizing democracy and reforming a petroleum-based economy, whose revenues have been squandered through corruption and mismanagement. In addition, Nigeria continues to experience longstanding ethnic and religious tensions. Although both the 2003 and 2007 presidential elections were marred by significant irregularities and violence, Nigeria is currently experiencing its longest period of civilian rule since independence.

The general elections of 2007 marked the first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power in the country's history and the elections of 2011 were generally regarded as credible. The 2015 election was heralded for the fact that the then-umbrella opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, defeated the long-ruling People's Democratic Party that had governed since 1999 and assumed the presidency after a peaceful transfer of power. Successful presidential and legislative elections were held in early 2019.

Nigeria’s population is projected to grow from more than 186 million people in 2016 to 392 million in 2050, becoming the world’s fourth most populous country. Nigeria’s sustained high population growth rate will continue for the foreseeable future because of population momentum and its high birth rate.

Abuja has not successfully implemented family planning programs to reduce and space births because of a lack of political will, government financing, and the availability and affordability of services and products, as well as a cultural preference for large families. Increased educational attainment, especially among women, and improvements in health care are needed to encourage and to better enable parents to opt for smaller families.

Nigeria needs to harness the potential of its burgeoning youth population in order to boost economic development, reduce widespread poverty, and channel large numbers of unemployed youth into productive activities and away from ongoing religious and ethnic violence. While most movement of Nigerians is internal, significant emigration regionally and to the West provides an outlet for Nigerians looking for economic opportunities, seeking asylum, and increasingly pursuing higher education.

Immigration largely of West Africans continues to be insufficient to offset emigration and the loss of highly skilled workers. Nigeria also is a major source, transit, and destination country for forced labor and sex trafficking.

0-14 years:

42.45% (male 44,087,799 /female 42,278,742)

15-24 years:

19.81% (male 20,452,045 /female 19,861,371)

25-54 years:

30.44% (male 31,031,253 /female 30,893,168)

55-64 years:

4.04% (male 4,017,658 /female 4,197,739)

65 years and over:

3.26% (male 3,138,206 /female 3,494,524) (2018 est.)

population pyramid :

This is the population pyramid for Nigeria. A population pyramid illustrates the age and sex structure of a country's population and may provide insights about political and social stability, as well as economic development. The population is distributed along the horizontal axis, with males shown on the left and females on the right. The male and female populations are broken down into 5-year age groups represented as horizontal bars along the vertical axis, with the youngest age groups at the bottom and the oldest at the top. The shape of the population pyramid gradually evolves over time based on fertility, mortality, and international migration trends. For additional information, please see the entry for Population pyramid on the Definitions and Notes page under the References tab.

degree of risk:

very high (2016)

food or waterborne diseases:

bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever (2016)

vectorborne diseases:

malaria, dengue fever, and yellow fever (2016)

water contact diseases:

leptospirosis and schistosomiasis (2016)

animal contact diseases:

rabies (2016)

respiratory diseases:

meningococcal meningitis (2016)

aerosolized dust or soil contact diseases:

Lassa fever (2016);

• note - on 7 October 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Travel Health Notice for a Yellow Fever outbreak in Nigeria;
• a large, ongoing outbreak of yellow fever in Nigeria began in September 2017;
• the outbreak is now spread throughout the country with the Nigerian Ministry of Health reporting cases of the disease in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory;
• the CDC recommends travelers going to Nigeria should receive vaccination against yellow fever at least 10 days before travel and should take steps to prevent mosquito bites while there;
• those never vaccinated against yellow fever should avoid travel to Nigeria during the outbreak

description:

bicameral National Assembly consists of:; Senate (109 seats - 3 each for the 36 states and 1 for Abuja-Federal Capital Territory; members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote to serve 4-year terms); House of Representatives (360 seats; members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote to serve 4-year terms)

elections:

• Senate - last held on 23 February 2019 (next to be held on 23 February 2023);
• note: election was scheduled for 16 February 2019 but was postponed on 15 February 2019

;

• House of Representatives - last held on 23 February 2019 (next to be held on 23 February 2023);
• note: election was scheduled for 16 February 2019 but was postponed on 15 February 2019

election results:

• Senate - percent of vote by party - NA;
• seats by party - APC 65, PDP 39, YPP 1, TBD 3;
• composition - men 103, women 6, percent of women 5.5%

;

• House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA;
• seats by party - APC 217, PDP 115, other 20, TBD 8;
• composition - men 346, women 14, percent of women 3.9%;
• note - total National Assembly percent of women 4.3%

Nigeria is Sub Saharan Africa’s largest economy and relies heavily on oil as its main source of foreign exchange earnings and government revenues. Following the 2008-09 global financial crises, the banking sector was effectively recapitalized and regulation enhanced. Since then, Nigeria’s economic growth has been driven by growth in agriculture, telecommunications, and services.

Economic diversification and strong growth have not translated into a significant decline in poverty levels; over 62% of Nigeria's over 180 million people still live in extreme poverty. Despite its strong fundamentals, oil-rich Nigeria has been hobbled by inadequate power supply, lack of infrastructure, delays in the passage of legislative reforms, an inefficient property registration system, restrictive trade policies, an inconsistent regulatory environment, a slow and ineffective judicial system, unreliable dispute resolution mechanisms, insecurity, and pervasive corruption.

Regulatory constraints and security risks have limited new investment in oil and natural gas, and Nigeria's oil production had been contracting every year since 2012 until a slight rebound in 2017. President BUHARI, elected in March 2015, has established a cabinet of economic ministers that includes several technocrats, and he has announced plans to increase transparency, diversify the economy away from oil, and improve fiscal management, but has taken a primarily protectionist approach that favors domestic producers at the expense of consumers.

President BUHARI ran on an anti-corruption platform, and has made some headway in alleviating corruption, such as implementation of a Treasury Single Account that allows the government to better manage its resources and a more transparent government payroll and personnel system that eliminated duplicate and "ghost workers."

The government also is working to develop stronger public-private partnerships for roads, agriculture, and power. Nigeria entered recession in 2016 as a result of lower oil prices and production, exacerbated by militant attacks on oil and gas infrastructure in the Niger Delta region, coupled with detrimental economic policies, including foreign exchange restrictions. GDP growth turned positive in 2017 as oil prices recovered and output stabilized.

the International Maritime Bureau reports the territorial and offshore waters in the Niger Delta and Gulf of Guinea as very high risk for piracy and armed robbery of ships; in 2018, 48 commercial vessels were boarded or attacked compared with 33 attacks in 2017; in 2018, 29 ships were boarded eight of which were underway, 12 were fired upon, and 78 crew members were abducted;

Nigerian pirates have extended the range of their attacks to as far away as Cote d'Ivoire and as far as 170 nm offshore; the Maritime Administration of the US Department of Transportation has issued a Maritime Advisory (2019-010-Gulf of Guinea-Piracy/Armed Robbery/Kidnapping for Ransom) effective 19 July 2019, which states in part "Piracy, armed robbery, and kidnapping for ransom (KFR) continue to serve as significant threats to U.S. flagged vessels transiting or operating in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG). ...According to the Office of Naval Intelligence’s “Weekly Piracy Reports” 72 reported incidents of piracy and armed robbery at sea occurred in the GoG region this year as of July 9, 2019.

Attacks, kidnappings for ransom (KFR), and boardings to steal valuables from the ships and crews are the most common types of incidents with approximately 75 percent of all incidents taking place off Nigeria. During the first six months of 2019, there were 15 kidnapping and 3 hijackings in the GoG."

Boko Haram:

• aim(s): replace the Nigerian Government with an Islamic state under strict sharia and, ultimately, establish an Islamic caliphate across Africa;
• avenge military offenses against the group and destroy any political or social activity associated with Western society;
• conducts attacks against primarily civilian and regional military targets

area(s) of operation:

headquartered in the northeast

note: since 2009, fighters have killed tens of thousands of Nigerians during hundreds of attacks and disrupted trade and farming in the northeast, causing a risk of famine and displacing millions of people;

violently opposes any political or social activity associated with Western society, including voting, attending secular schools, and wearing Western dress (2018)

• Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS)-West Africa: aim(s): implement ISIS's strict interpretation of Sharia;
• replace the Nigerian Government with an Islamic state

area(s) of operation:

• based primarily in the north along the border with Niger, with its largest presence in the northeast and the Lake Chad region;
• targets primarily regional military installations and civilians (2018)