ABSTRACT

Nigeria, the most populous black nation in the world, has an ocial population of 150 million (National Population Commission 2006) and a projected population of 167 million as of October 2011. e country is located on the gulf of the Guinea in West Africa and shares borders with Niger, Cameroon, and the Chad Republic in the north; the Republic of Benin in the west; and the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean in the south. e climatic condition of the country is diverse and ranges from arid to humid equatorial, with predominantly two seasons: rainy and dry. Despite its vast arable lands, the economy of Nigeria changed from agriculture driven to petroleum driven in the 1970s, when massive oil exportation began following the increase in world oil price. Although crude oil was discovered in 1956 by Shell-BP, production and exportation began only in 1958. Nigeria is also naturally endowed with mineral resources such as tin, columbite, limestone, gold, coals, bitumen, and kaolin, among others.