FACTS

Wealth;

Despite its vast resources, Nigeria ranks among the most unequal countries in the world. The poverty in the North is in stark contrast to more developed southern states. The oil rich south-east residents complain the wealth they generate flows up the pipeline to Abuja and Lagos!

Literacy
Female literacy is seen as the key to raising living standards for the next generation. For example, a newborn child is far likelier to survive if its mother is well-educated. In Nigeria we see a stark contrast between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south. In some northern states less than 5% of women can read and write, whereas in some Igbo areas more than 90% are literate.

Oil
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and among the biggest in the world but most of its people subsist on less than $2 a day. The oil is produced in the south-east and some militant groups there want to keep a greater share of the wealth which comes from under their feet. Attacks by militants on oil installations led to a sharp fall in Nigeria's output during the last decade. But in 2010, a government amnesty led thousands of fighters to lay down their weapons.

Health
Southern residents tend to have better access to healthcare, as reflected by the greater uptake of vaccines for polio,tuberculosis, tetanus. But some Northern groups in the past boycotted immunization programs in the past, claiming they are a Western plot to make Muslim women infertile.

Source;bbc.comhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16607176