ates, Britain, other European Economic Community countries, Japan, and Canada (Metz, 1991). Oil, a huge export from Nigeria has created many problems in the country. Efforts to decrease unemployment have been hampered by the dependence of the economy on petroleum, especially in the recession of the 1980s. "In 1988 oil produced 87 percent of the country's export income and 77 percent of total federal revenues. This situation made the economy very vulnerable to world oil price fluctuations" (Metz, 1991, section 1 of 1). The fall of oil prices and output in the the latter 1980s caused a drastic decline in Nigerias GDP. As a result, gross national product declined from $830 US dollars to $250 per capitia in 1989 (Metz, 1991). As a result, for the first time in 1988, Nigeria was listed by the World Bank as a low-income country. "The fall in the price of oil caused Nigeria not only to incur a trade deficit but also to begin foreign borrowing, resulting in 1989 in the largest public debt of any sub-Saharan country" (Metz, 1991, section 1 of 1). Most middle class Nigerian women will agree that the basic situation of women in Nigeria is not intolerable or appalling because of the economic women have within the system. Women of urban working class, the urban poor, and the peasantry insist more on their right to work, as they very often are effected differently by the system, both Islamic and traditional. (sisterhood, 500).Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the largest in area of the West African states. It is a country of great diversity because of the many ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups that live within its borders. Nigeria is also a country with a long past. The history of the peoples that constitute the present state dates back more than 2,000 years. The Nok people inhabited the region of Nigeria from from 800 B.C.E. to 200 B.C.E. Kanem-Bornu, the first major state in Nigeria, developed in the 8th cent...
