Our Statement of Purpose

Nigeria is located on the coast of West Africa bordering the Gulf of Guinea. Please log in to: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/nigeria/locator-map for a good regional location map. It is roughly twice the size of California in land area. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Nigeria has a population of over 200 million, roughly five times the population of California. By 2050, Nigeria is projected to be the third most populous country in the world after India and China. In 2020, the World Bank ranked Nigeria 150 of 157 countries for its human capital development. Despite its limited resources, Nigeria has played important roles in ensuring regional stability, especially in the West African Region. It has contributed forces to many United Nations Peace Missions in several conflict areas.

Nigeria faces many challenges of its own due to many factors such as poverty, gender inequality, environmental degradation, climate change (floods and droughts), and stresses from managing its diversities (tribal, cultural, and religious). There is widespread banditry and kidnapping for ransoms creating insecurity that threatens social harmony. For example, there are ongoing farmer herders conflicts over land within Nigeria. That has disrupted livelihoods and farming, especially within the food-producing areas of the country.

Terrorist activities by Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP, aka ISIS West Africa), and Fulani jihadist militia have displaced people while also disrupting commerce and limiting school enrollment, especially for girls. About 23% of girls between 15 to 19 years old are married, thereby leading to gender inequality in secondary education and beyond. The World Bank has identified adolescent girls as a key demographic group for breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty in developing countries.

Exacerbating Nigerian challenges are disruptions in global supply chains and geopolitical events such as the war in Ukraine, and the radical Islamist insurgencies in the broader Sahel region. According to the World Food Program, there are up to 3 million internally displaced populations (refugees) just within 3 states in Northeastern Nigeria where Boko Haram and ISWAP are active. It is pertinent to note that Lake Chad is in Northeastern Nigeria within the Sahelian region of Africa. Lake Chad has dramatically shrunk in size (by over 90% within 60 years) possibly because of diversions for irrigation and climate change (droughts). Lake Chad Basin covers about 8% of the land area of the African continent. The lake’s shrinkage coupled with insecurity has created migration and limited economic opportunities within the region which borders other countries such as Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. Climate change effects in Nigeria are not limited to the Lake Chad Basin alone. Within Nigeria, in 2022, over 4.4 million were impacted by floods with 2.6 million displaced according to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

In summary, the challenges facing Nigeria include poverty, food insecurity, ethnic tensions, and religious conflicts among several others. In 2022, the World Bank estimated that at least 80 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty. The Bank also noted that annual inflation has surged to 21.1 percent by October 2022, which pushed as many as five million additional Nigerians into poverty. Under the current trajectory up to another 23 million additional Nigerians could be living in extreme poverty by 2030.

Nigeria has limited resources, a significant portion of which is devoted to addressing the many conflicts and the prevailing insecurity atmosphere. The Nigerians in Diaspora have important roles to contribute to addressing some of those challenges. This local foundation based in Kern County is therefore dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of its efforts by pooling resources together in raising awareness about those challenges. The Foundation is scaling upwards hitherto individual efforts and seeking to collaborate with well-meaning others to partially mitigate the impacts of some of those challenges. Based on the professional backgrounds of our members, our initial focus will be on education (especially for girls) and health care.

Please find below some Important Web Links Regarding Nigeria and some of its challenges

Nigeria Embassy: https://nigeriaembassyusa.org/about-nigeria/ https://nigeriaembassyusa.org/about-nigeria/

CIA Factbook on Nigeria: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/nigeria/

CIA Nigeria Location Map: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/nigeria/locator-map

United States State Department on Nigeria Religious Freedom: https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/nigerial/

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) - The Nigeria Security Tracker (NST): https://www.cfr.org/nigeria/nigeria-security-tracker/p29483?cid=otr-marketing_use-nigeria_security_tracker

World Bank - Macro Poverty Outlook for Nigeria: https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099501404132315331/idu08940d9ab02ff10476e0bde30902ced1fb59f

World Food Program: https://www.wfp.org/countries/nigeria

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) State of Nigeria Children data: https://data.unicef.org/country/nga/

International Monetary Fund - Nigeria Selected Issues (Food Insecurity): https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2023/02/16/Nigeria-Selected-Issues-529847

African Development Bank – Nigeria National Climate Change Profile: https://www.afdb.org/en/documents/nigeria-national-climate-change-profile

Lake Chad Basin Commission: https://cblt.org/

Statista - Nigeria Statistics & Facts: https://www.statista.com/topics/2386/nigeria/#topicOverview