Nigeria
Federal Republic of Nigeria | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Coat of arms
| |
Motto: "Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress" | |
.svg)  | |
| Capital | Abuja 9°4′N 7°29′E / 9.067°N 7.483°E ⧼validator-fatal-error⧽ |
| Largest city | Lagos |
| Official languages | English |
| National languages | Yoruba • Hausa • Igbo |
| Other languages[1] | |
| Demonym(s) | Nigerian |
| Government | Federal presidential constitutional republic |
| Muhammadu Buhari | |
| Yemi Osinbajo | |
| Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan | |
| Femi Gbajabiamila | |
| Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad | |
| Legislature | National Assembly |
| Senate | |
| House of Representatives | |
| Independence from the United Kingdom | |
• Unification of Southern and Northern Nigeria | 1 January 1914 |
• Declared and recognised | 1 October 1960 |
• Republic declared | 1 October 1963 |
| 29 May 1999 | |
| Area | |
• Total | 923,769 km2 (356,669 sq mi) (32nd) |
• Water (%) | 1.4 |
| Population | |
• 2020 estimate | 206,630,269[2] (7th) |
• 2006 census | 140,431,691 |
• Density | 218/km2 (564.6/sq mi) (42nd) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2020 estimate |
• Total | $1.275 trillion[3] (23rd) |
• Per capita | $6,232 (129th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2020 estimate |
• Total | $504.57 billion[3] (27th) |
• Per capita | $2,465 (137th) |
| Gini (2020) |  35.1[4]medium |
| HDI (2018) |  0.534[5]low · 158th |
| Currency | Naira (₦) (NGN) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (WAT) |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +234 |
| ISO 3166 code | NG |
| Internet TLD | .ng |
Nigeria (/naɪˈdʒɪəriə/ (
listen)), officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a sovereign country located in West Africa bordering Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, and Benin in the west. Its southern coast is on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. Nigeria is a federal republic comprising 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Abuja, is located.
Nigeria has been home to a number of ancient and indigenous pre-colonial states and kingdoms over the millennia. The modern state originated from British colonial rule beginning in the 19th century, and took its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914 by Lord Frederick Lugard. The British set up administrative and legal structures while practicing indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms; Nigeria became a formally independent federation on October 1, 1960. It experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970. It thereafter alternated between democratically-elected civilian governments and military dictatorships until it achieved a stable democracy in 1999, with the 2015 presidential election marking the first time an incumbent president had lost re-election.[6]
A multinational state, Nigeria is inhabited by more than 250 ethnic groups with over 500 distinct languages all identifying with a wide variety of cultures.[7][8][9] The three largest ethnic groups are the Hausa–Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the west, and Igbo in the east; comprising over 60% of the total population.[10] The official language of Nigeria is English, chosen to facilitate linguistic unity at the national level.[11] Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Muslims, who live mostly in the north, and Christians, who live mostly in the south. (Cameroon, adjacent to that portion, is predominantly Christian.) Nigeria has respectively, the fifth-largest Muslim population in the world and the sixth-largest Christian population in the world,[12] with the constitution ensuring freedom of religion.[13] A minority of the population practice religions indigenous to Nigeria, such as those native to the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities.[14]
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa[15][16] and the seventh most populous country in the world, with an estimated 206 million inhabitants as of late 2019.[17] Nigeria has the third-largest youth population in the world, after India and China, with more than 90 million of its population under the age of eighteen.[18][19] Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa and is the world's 24th largest economy according to the list by the IMF (2020 estimates), worth more than $500 billion and $1 trillion in terms of nominal GDP and purchasing power parity, respectively.[20][21] The 2013 debt-to-GDP ratio was 11 percent as of 2019 it has risen to an approximated figure of 16 percent.[22] Nigeria is a lower middle-income economy with a gross national income per capita between $1,026 and $3,986.[23] Nigeria is often referred to as the "Giant of Africa", owing to its large population and economy,[24] it is also considered to be an emerging market by the World Bank;[25] it has been identified as a regional power on the African continent,[26][27][28] a middle power in international affairs,[29][30][31][32] and has also been identified as an emerging global power.[33][34][35] However, its Human Development Index ranks 158th in the world.
Nigeria is a member of the MINT group of countries, which are widely seen as the globe's next "BRIC-like" economies. It is also listed among the "Next Eleven" economies set to become among the biggest in the world. Nigeria is a founding member of the African Union and a member of many other international organizations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the ECOWAS, and OPEC.
- ↑ "Languages of Nigeria". Ethnologue. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
- ↑ "UN Projection", World Population Prospects 2017
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2018 – Nigeria". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
- ↑ "Poverty and Inequality Index". National Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
- ↑ "Human Development Report 2019" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
- ↑ "Nigeria's Buhari wins historic election landslide". Reuters. 2015-03-31. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
- ↑ "Ethnicity in Nigeria". PBS. 5 April 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
- ↑ "Nigeria". Ethnologue. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
- ↑ "Linguistic diversity in Africa and Europe – Languages Of The World". 16 June 2011. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "NIGERIA – CIA WORLD FACTBOOK 2019" (PDF). Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Mann, Charles C. (1990). "Choosing an Indigenous Official Language for Nigeria" (PDF). Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The countries with the 10 largest Christian populations and the 10 largest Muslim populations". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
- ↑ "Nigerian Constitution". Nigeria Law. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ↑ "Nigeria Fact Sheet" (PDF). United States Embassy in Nigeria. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
- ↑ "Nigeria Overview". World Bank Group. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
- ↑ "Nigeria to Give All of Its 200 Million People Identity Numbers". Bloomberg LP. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
- ↑ "Nigeria Population". WorldMeters. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
- ↑ The CIAWorld Fact Book 2014. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. 2013. ISBN 978-1-62636-073-0. Search this book on
- ↑ Library of Congress – Federal Research Division (July 2008). "Country profile: Nigeria" (PDF): 9. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
- ↑ "Nigeria becomes Africa's largest economy". Retrieved 5 April 2014.
- ↑ "Nigerian Economy Overtakes South Africa's on Rebased GDP". Retrieved 20 April 2014.
- ↑ "UPDATE 2-Nigeria surpasses South Africa as continent's biggest economy". Retrieved 26 April 2014.
- ↑ "World Bank Country and Lending Groups – World Bank Data Help Desk". datahelpdesk.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
- ↑ "Nigeria: The African giant". The Round Table. 50 (197): 55–63. 1959. doi:10.1080/00358535908452221.
- ↑ "Nigeria". World Bank. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- ↑ "Nigeria is poised to become Africa's most powerful nation". Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Nigeria". West Africa Gateway. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2013. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Nigeria" (PDF). Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- ↑ Andrew F. Cooper, Agata Antkiewicz and Timothy M. Shaw, 'Lessons from/for BRICSAM about South-North Relations at the Start of the 21st Century: Economic Size Trumps All Else?', International Studies Review, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Winter, 2007), pp. 675, 687.
- ↑ Meltem Myftyler and Myberra Yyksel, 'Turkey: A Middle Power in the New Order', in Niche Diplomacy: Middle Powers After the Cold War, edited by Andrew F. Cooper (London: Macmillan, 1997).
- ↑ Mace G, Belanger L (1999) The Americas in Transition: The Contours of Regionalism (p. 153)
- ↑ Solomon S (1997) South African Foreign Policy and Middle Power Leadership Archived 26 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine, ISS
- ↑ "Nigeria, an Emerging African Power". BET. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ "MINT Countries: Nigeria Now Listed Among Emerging World Economic Powers". The Street Journal. 7 January 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ "The Mint countries: Next economic giants?". BBC. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
