Nigeria Research Papers Examples

The federal republic of Nigerian is located in the west of Africa, bordering the nation such as Benin, Chad Cameroon and Nigeria. Its south borders, coast of Gulf of Guinea. The republic of Nigeria is constitutionally divided in 36 states with the federal capital city of the republic being Abuja. The country's population in the year 2013 is estimated to have reached 174.5 million. It is the 32nd largest country in the world with a total area of 923,768 km sq. today. Today, Nigeria is considered one of the first growing nations and its economy in 2014 becomes the leading in Africa continent. This work will focus on the political, education, culture and the mortality rate of this African nation.

Political Nigeria

Nigeria gained its independence from the British government in 1960. Since then the Nigeria has leadership has been alternated from military dictatorship and the democratic civilian elected leadership. The republic of Nigeria leadership is modeled after that of the government of the United States where the executive powers are given to the president. The government of Nigeria also has been influenced by the Westminster system, especially in the management and the composition of the upper and the lower house which is a bicameral legislature (Oyediran, 67).
The nation is headed by a president who is also the head of the government as well the head of the multiparty system. The legislature of the Nigeria is composed of two houses, the house of the senate and the house of representative. These two houses are actually the lawmaking body in Nigeria and together are referred to as the National Assembly. Moreover, the other function of the national assembly in Nigeria is checking the executive arm of the government. The house of representatives is presided over by the speaker of assembly while the senate house is presided over by the president of the senate. All members in these two houses are elected in four year term.
The executive arm of the government is composed of the president and the cabinet. The ministers in the government are responsible to head parastatals such as the schools, state owned Petroleum Corporation etc. The ministers are actually appointed by the president but approved by the house of the senate. In most cases the president executes equality upon the population by ensuring that he selects a member from all the 36 states within the nation.
The other arm of government is the judiciary which has its highest office in the nation as the supreme court of Nigeria. Nigeria like most of the nation is based on the rule of laws and the constitutional framework of the rules and regulation written in the constitution. Most of the raw are derived from the English law, common law, customary law and the sharia law. The sharia laws are specifically used in the northern Nigeria, where most of the population belongs to Muslim religion. The Nigeria constitution also practices separation of power using the Baron de Montesquieu’s theory.

Education system

In the past 3 decades ago, the education system in Nigeria was based on three fundamental systems; the Quranic schools, the indigenous system and the institution based on European education. Most of the children in the rural areas actually learned the community services such as farming and chores from their parents as well as peers. In the northern Nigeria the children were expected to learn chapter of Quran just like the madrasa classes (Ali-Akpajak, 71). However, education expert had called for the integration of the education system since the 70s, but those puzzles remained unsolved till the 1990s. Most of the European education system was introduced in Nigeria by the missionaries in the late 19 and early 20th century. In the 1970, the government of Nigeria had made the universal primary education official, but was not achieved since most of the indigenous cultures never supported it. Over since education has developed with more modification and the government has made it almost compulsory up to secondary school level.
Today, the education in Nigeria is run by the government under the ministry of education. The education ministry gives the local authorizes mandate to ensure the implementation of policy concern with education in the government owned public school. The education system in the republic of Nigeria is divided in four levels incorporated in the 6-3-3-4 system. The first level is the kindergarten, followed by the primary education, the secondary education and the last and highest level being the tertiary education. The Nigeria education has embraced the universal basic education, replacing the universal primary education. Primary education is compulsory in Nigeria and is supervised by a body referred to as the universal basic education commission. The children are expected to spend 6 years in primary school then take a common entrance examination so that they can be admitted to junior secondary where they spend another three years. The junior secondary school is usually free and compulsory. It prepares student for the next level the senior secondary school. The senior secondary school are not compulsory since in most of the state owned schools, students are required to pay something less for their miscellaneous about 100 dollars a year. The teachers of these secondary schools are holders of a bachelor’s degree (Bell-Gam, 78).
It is important to note that the private secondary education in Nigeria is very expensive. State owned secondary schools are usually funded by the government. The students take their final exam after spending 3 years, so as to proceed to the tertiary level. Tertiary level education takes student four years to complete a bachelor degree. In Nigeria out of the registered 128 universities the federal and state own 78 of them while the rest are private universities. It is the final exam results in the senior secondary school that dictate the tertiary education, whether a student enroll for a degree or diploma. Women in Nigeria today are not a level behind in the education sector as the government has pressured on women's education. The teachers in Nigeria are government state worker under the labor ministry (Oyediran, and Adigun, 94).

Mortality rate

The life expectancy in Nigeria is as low as 52 years for both the female and the male. This is much attributed to the fact that in this African nation, the living conditions and the healthcare are generally poor. There is poor access of proper medication and clean water to almost half of the population especially in those rural areas. This eventually contributes 97.1 infant mortality rates in every 1000 live births, according to the WHO 2010 statistics. Among adults the mortality rate, according to 2010 statics among adults was at 398 per every 1000 individuals (Johnson and Carleen, 54). Most of this death is contributed by the tropical diseases, especially malaria, which a killer disease in most infants, pregnant mother and good old age peers. The mortality late is higher among male in Nigeria compared to women by approximate 40 per every 1000.However, Nigeria today has been able to fight mortality rate among children by increasing health units, health budget allocation, and personnel. The current statistic on childhood mortality points it at 74 per 1000 children, which a reduction from the previous year.

Culture

It is one of the most populated nations in the world with a great diversity of cultural aspect. The countries in the northern and western parts of Africa have cultures that are based on a Muslim setting and the south with great diversity due to the Christian religion. Nigeria is enriched with 250 ethnic groups with various languages and customs and 521 languages spoken among the indigenous. The major ethnic languages are the Igbo, Fulfulde and Yoruba. Nigerians are actually known for the literature contribution through their writings from various renowned writers like Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri, and Chimammanda Ngozi among so many others (Bell-Gam, 80).
Nigerians are famous in the world of music and film. They are the leading in the African continent in producing love films through the movie industry called Nollywood film industry. Film industry and music have become a major contributor to the economy of this nation. Another culture aspect in the Nigeria that is famous is in the world of sport. The football game in Nigeria is the most cherished and the national team widely knows as ‘Super Eagles’ being one of the famous and best in Africa. The national team has worn several African cups of nations and the most recent being 2013. The team has also appeared in the world cup several times though have not done very much there. The nation has many players playing in the international leagues. The Nigerians football fans are widely known, due to the passionate celebration and love for the game (Falola, 38).
In conclusion, like most of the African nation, Nigeria is faced with many challenges. It is currently under the threats of a terrorist Islamic militia group known as Boko Haram that want to rule the northern nation. This has actually caused panic in the nation and caused several state functions to lie still such as the recent concluded presidential election that had to be postponed. The nation is also faced with the challenge of overpopulation leading to most of the nation, not accessing the government basic provision such as health, education and security. However, changes are expected from the newly elected president Muhammad Buhari.

Works cited

Ali-Akpajak, Sofo C. A, and Tom Pyke. Measuring Education in Nigeria. Oxford [u.a.: Oxfam, 2003. Print.
Bell-Gam, Ruby, and David U. Iyam. Nigeria. Oxford, England: Clio Press, 2009. Print
Falola, Toyin. Culture and Customs of Nigeria. Westport, Conn. [u.a.: Greenwood Press, 2001. Print.
Johnson, James A, and Carleen H. Stoskopf. Comparative Health Systems: Global Perspectives. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2010. Print.
Oyediran, Oyeleye, and Adigun A. B. Agbaje. Nigeria: Politics of Transition and Governance, 1986-2006. Dakar, Senegal: Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, 2000. Print.