Nigeria: Building its' Future
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
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From corruption to oil to micro-credit. In NBR's special, Nigeria: Building Its Future, Correspondent Kenneth Walker takes a look at the sweeping changes taking place in Africa's most populous nation.
As a democracy, Nigeria is still in its infancy. Military regimes, for the most part, ruled Africa's most populous country from the time Nigeria won its independence from British colonial rule in 1960. These corrupt military dictatorships stunted the country's economic growth, as evidenced in the deterioration of Nigeria's roads, railways, banks and telecommunications systems. These dictators also left Nigeria's government and democratic institutions a mess.
But now, under the democratic rule of President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was first elected in 1999, Nigerians seem determined to make up for lost time.
In this special series, NBR Correspondent Kenneth Walker looks at some of the fundamental changes currently taking place in this oil-rich nation, from the new government's attempts to abolish corruption to its efforts in diversifying the country's economy.
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