Nigeria: Oil riches can't hide a wealth of social ills

Violence has long haunted Nigeria, the West African country the world is watching much more closely after the abduction of more than 300 schoolgirls by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram.

Nigeria is in many ways a country of contrasts and conflict, where oil production concentrated in the Niger Delta has helped fuel an economy that has become Africa's largest, but where more than half the population lives in poverty.

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Longstanding divisions have existed between Muslims and Christians, as well as the country's oil-rich south and more impoverished north, where the girls were abducted.

Here's a closer look at some elements of life in the country and Canada's relationship with it.

Population

Nigeria has an estimated population of 177 million, and ranks as the eighth most-populated country in the world, according to the CIA World Factbook.

That tally makes it the most populated country in Africa, well ahead of the next biggest, Ethiopia, which has a population of 96.6 million.

Nearly half of Nigeria's residents (49.6 per cent) live in urban areas, the largest of which is Lagos, a rapidly growing port city that had a population of 10.2 million in 2009, according to the CIA Factbook.

The population is diverse, with more than 250 ethnic groups represented. Fifty per cent are Muslim, 40 per cent are Christian and 10 per cent have indigenous beliefs, the CIA Factbook says.

The United Nations has projected that Nigeria's population will surpass that of the United States by 2050, the Guardian reported last year.

Government

Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960, but running the country has not been a stable prospect. Power changed hands through coups and counter-coups for decades.

Civilian rule came in 1999, but political liberalization since then "has allowed militants from religious and ethnic groups to pursue their demands through violence," the BBC reports.

BokoHaram, the group behind the kidnapping of the schoolgirls, has led attacks that have killed thousands of people.

"Violence among ethnic groups, farmers, and herdsmen sometimes acquires religious overtones," according to the Council on Foreign Relations'Nigeria Security Tracker.

President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian born in the Niger Delta, took office in 2010 after the death of Umaru Yar'Adua. A year later, Jonathan won his first presidential election.

At one time described as "Nigeria's Obama," according to CNN, Jonathan has seen his popularity plunge. He's also sacked several ministers and courted international controversy this year when the Nigerian government introduced one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world.

Jonathan's government and the country's security forces have been criticized for their ineptitude indealingwith Boko Haram and a weak response to the schoolgirls' abductions.

Economy

After a long-anticipated recalculation of the country's GDP to $502 billion US, Nigeria became Africa's largest economy last month. It took that position from South Africa, and became the world's 26th largest economy.

Nigeria's emergence as Africa's biggest economy, fuelled in large part by oil production in the Niger Delta, was in ways the result of some high-level accounting, but "is not mere trickery," according to a report last month in the Economist.

"It provides a truer picture of Nigerias size by giving due weight to the bits of the economy, such as telecoms, banking and the Nollywood film industry, that have been growing fast in recent years," the Economist said.

The film industry is thriving, and produces more films a year than any country other than India, the Guardian reported, with much of the success attributed to a focus on producing low-budget movies.

Mobile phones have also found great favour in Nigeria, with about 120 million subscribers. Twenty years ago, the Guardian said, Nigeria had only one telecom company and 300,000 phone lines.

But all is not economic sunshine and light. Unemployment was estimated at 23.9 per cent in 2011, and an estimated 70 per cent of the population lived below the poverty line in 2010, according to the CIA Factbook.

Violence by militants in the Niger Delta, where kidnappings and attacks were common, caused significant disruption in the oil industry before an amnesty in 2009. Oil theft and sabotage are still a problem, however.

Education

A rapidly growing population has put intense pressure on public services in Nigeria and "the burden on education and other sectors has become overwhelming," according to UNICEF.

An estimated 4.7 million children of primary school age are not in school, and resources have been spread more thinly as enrolment increases, UNICEF says.

"It is not rare to see cases of 100 pupils per teacher or students sitting under trees outside the school building because of the lack of classrooms."

Girls' education has also been a challenge, particularly in the north, where the schoolgirls were kidnapped. In that area, the ratio of girls to boys ranges from 1 to 2 to 1 to 3 in some states, UNICEF says.

Canadian trade and ties with Nigeria

Canada's commercial relationship with Nigeria is its largest in sub-Saharan Africa.

The relationship was worth $2.33 billion in two-way merchandise trade in 2012, according to the federal government. Exports to Nigeria were worth $326.6 million. Imports were primarily oil.

Canadian business interests in Nigeria are wide-ranging, including everything from oil and gas and telecommunications to agriculture and aeronautics.

Aid has also been focused on improving maternal, newborn and child health in Nigeria, where the maternal death rate was 630 per 100,000 live births in 2010.

The Canadian government has also provided electoral support.