Cleavages and Geography

I know that Geography is everyone's favorite, but there are many maps that show stark contrasts within the State of Nigeria. 

We have seen this before. Each color represents an area in which a different language is spoken. This causes social cleavages for obvious reasons. Communication is a big issue especially for UN workers going in to give aid.

This map also shows ethnic cleavages. Each color represents the dominating ethnic group in that region. Several minority groups feel like they are not heard because of the vast number of groups.

This map shows population density by state. As you can see, the south tends to be more densely populated. This is not surprising considering the higher rates of industry and urbanization happening in the Niger River Delta especially due to the oil trade.

This is a map of poverty within Nigeria. As you can clearly see, poverty rates are much higher on average in the north. This is a two part problem. The north has fewer factories and is more supported by agriculture. The second problem, as the next map will show is that this problem extends to more than just economics. 

This map shows in green the states that are under Shari'a Law. The white states are not and are majority Christian. The Muslim dominated (almost 99%) North is the portion struggling economically. This is upsetting because many Muslim extremists in Nigeria, like Boko Haram, are blaming the the government for creating this injustice on purpose. 

This is the saddest of all the maps I have seen today. This map shows the percentage of 1 year olds who have received basic life saving vaccinations. Medicine is clearly not a priority in Nigeria seeing as the highest rates are only about 40%. However, again there is a north-south cleavage in that the further north you go, the less likely a child is to have had vaccinations. This leads to a higher child mortality rate in the north and groups again like Boko Haram blame the government for intentionally withholding care from the North because they are Muslim.