Nigeria

E

2

Culture

Nigeria has a long and rich tradition of arts and literature. Terracotta sculptures were made by Nok artists of northern Nigeria as early as 500 bc, and Ife terracottas and Benin bronze work, first made about ad 1200, are world famous. Today, traditional folk art is augmented by Western-influenced graphics, painting, and sculpture. Traditional oral literature has had a significant impact on such world-famous 20th century Nigerian writers as Amos Tutuola, the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, and more recently Ben Okri. Parallel to the rich modern literature, most often written in English, is a written vernacular literature, augmented by professional theatre companies and dance groups. See African Art and Architecture; African Literature; African Theatre.

The National Museum in Lagos has a rich collection of art from all periods. Museums in Benin City, Ibadan, Ife, Ilorin, Jos, and Kaduna are also outstanding. The Nigerian government has made a concerted effort to prevent the removal of significant Nigerian art from the country and has sought the return of art taken out during the colonial era. Major collections of books and documents are housed in the National Library of Nigeria (Lagos) and the National Archives (Ibadan) as well as in university libraries.

IV

Economy

Nigeria was traditionally an agricultural country, providing the bulk of its own food needs and exporting a variety of agricultural goods, notably palm oil, cacao, rubber, and groundnuts (peanuts). By the 1970s, however, oil had supplanted cash crops as the major source of foreign exchange and transformed Nigeria’s economic fortunes. After oil prices collapsed during the 1980s the federal and state governments embarked on ambitious development programmes aimed at diversifying the economy. Only some of these have proved sustainable and oil revenues remain the principal generator of economic activity in the country. However, Nigeria’s unpopular military rulers have failed to make significant progress in moving the economy away from over-dependence on oil, 60 per cent of which is state-owned. The government’s domestic and international arrears continue to limit economic growth; the largely subsistence agricultural sector has failed to keep up with rapid population growth, and Nigeria, once a large net exporter of food, must now import food. Inflation runs at around 57 per cent.

In 2004, Nigeria had a GNP of US$55,326 million (World Bank), equivalent to US$620 per capita. Influenced by rising oil revenues, Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose by an annual average of 6.9 per cent during 1965 to 1980. During 1980 to 1988, GDP shrank by 1.1 per cent annually as oil prices and revenues dropped; in 1996, however, it grew by 3.25 per cent. In 2006 GDP was estimated at US$115,338 million (US$797 per capita).

Agriculture made the largest contribution to GDP until 1997, when industry’s share increased to around 47 per cent. Crude petroleum exports dominate external trade revenues: in 1994 they accounted for over 97 per cent of the total value of exports. The volatility of international oil prices in the 1970s and 1980s helped to generate Nigeria’s large foreign debt burden of more than US$28,000 million (1994).

A

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

Most Nigerians are subsistence farmers, producing sorghum, millet, and cattle in the north, and maize, rice, and yams in the south. Cassava, legumes, and tomatoes are raised throughout Nigeria, as are poultry, goats, and sheep. Large amounts of plantains and sugar cane are also produced. Palm oil became an export crop to Europe in the early 19th century. Cacao and groundnuts later grew in importance, surpassing palm oil as export crops in the early 1950s. Cotton, raised in the north, began to be grown for domestic use in the early part of the 20th century.

Most crops are grown on small family farms. Large plantations were discouraged until the 1950s, but since then they have been significant in the production of rubber, palm oil, and cacao. Principal crops in 2006 (with annual output in tonnes) included: cassava (45.7 million); sorghum (10 million); millet (7.71 million); peanuts (4 million); and sugar cane (987,000). Palm oil, palm kernels, yams, and maize are also important. Livestock included 28 million goats, 15.9 million cattle, and 23 million sheep.

The annual harvest of roundwood in 2006 was about 71 million cu m (2.51 billion cu ft), of which the majority is used for household fuel. About 35 per cent of Nigeria’s annual fish catch comes from the country’s rivers and lakes, with most of the rest being taken from the Gulf of Guinea. The annual catch in 2005 was about 579,537 tonnes.

B

Mining

Nigeria is one of the world’s leading producers of crude oil; the annual output was about 818 million barrels in 2004. Nigerian oil has a low sulphur content, making it particularly attractive to American and European buyers seeking to reduce air pollution. It is extracted by major international oil companies working in joint ventures with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Much natural gas is also produced; in 2003 annual production was about 19.2 billion cu m (678 billion cu ft), which is used to fuel domestic power stations. The amount of gas recovered at present is only a minority of what is produced as a by-product of the oil industry; the majority is flared. A major project to increase the recovery rate and to produce liquefied natural gas for export is under construction and due to become operational in 2000. Reserves were estimated at 3,114 billion cu m (109,924 billion cu ft) in the early 1990s, and estimates have increased since. Tin and columbite are mined in the Jos Plateau area, and coal is produced in the Onitsha region. Small amounts of limestone, salt, lignite, and iron ore are also mined.

C

Manufacturing

Scattered throughout Nigeria are small family businesses producing traditional craft goods—pottery, carvings, ornamental cloth, and leather goods—and more modern consumer goods, such as bricks and other building materials, milled grain, and beverages. In the 1970s large-scale enterprises were established, mostly in the south. They include motor-vehicle assembly plants, oil refineries, and factories producing textiles, fertilizers, rubber goods, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, pulp and paper, cigarettes, aluminium, iron and steel, and petrochemicals.