Key socio-economic indicators

General trends at country level (and geographical variation where relevant) with a focus on the cities of Lagos and Abuja.

  1. Economic situation

    Employment

    Poverty

    Food security

    Housing and living conditions

    Education

    Healthcare

    Availability of state support mechanism for individuals without social network (women; orphans; IDPs and returnees)

    Mobility and internal travel (international and domestic flights)

    Access to airports and freedom of movement


  1. Counter Trafficking Network, Tutorial: Juju & Witchcraft, 2020, url, p. 1

    ↩︎

  2. EUAA COI Report Methodology, February 2023, url

    ↩︎

  3. EUAA COI Writing and Referencing Guide, February 2023, url

    ↩︎

  4. EUAA COI Report Methodology, 2023, url

    ↩︎

  5. UN OCHA, Nigeria: Reference Map, 29 October 2020, url

    ↩︎

  6. BBC News, Nigeria Country Profile, 28 July 2023, url; LSE blog, Navigating Nigerian Politics: Democratisation and Development, 23 April 2024, url; BBC News, Remembering Nigeria's Biafra war that many prefer to forget

    15 January 2020, url

    ↩︎

  7. Nigeria, About Nigeria, States, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  8. OSGOF, UNCS, UN OCHA, HDX, n.d., latest modified 4 April 2023, url

    ↩︎

  9. QGIS 3.44, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  10. Ata-Agboni, J. U. et al., Federalism and Local Government System in Nigeria: A Critical Assessment, January 2023, url, p. 1

    ↩︎

  11. UNFCCC, Nigeria’s First Biennial Transparency Report under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 26 December 2024, url, p. 2; Nigeria, About Nigeria, States, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  12. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  13. World Bank, The World Bank in Nigeria, last updated 10 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  14. Ata-Agboni, J. U. et al., Federalism and Local Government System in Nigeria: A Critical Assessment, January 2023, url , pp. 23-25

    ↩︎

  15. CLGF, Local Government System in Nigeria, 2019, url, p. 161

    ↩︎

  16. Ata-Agboni, J. U. et al., Federalism and Local Government System in Nigeria: A Critical Assessment, January 2023, url, pp. 23-25

    ↩︎

  17. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  18. World Bank, The World Bank in Nigeria, last updated 10 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  19. APC, APC Elected Members (2023 – 2027), n.d., url; Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  20. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  21. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  22. International Crisis Group, Restoring Nigeria’s Leadership for Regional Peace and Security, 11 December 2024, url

    ↩︎

  23. LSE blog, Navigating Nigerian Politics: Democratisation and Development, 23 April 2024, url

    ↩︎

  24. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  25. Nigeria, EFCC, Yahaya Bello’s Alleged N80.2bn Fraud: How N1.09bn Vanished from Kogi Government’s Account in Three Days-Witness, 26 June 2025, url; Nigeria, EFCC, Alleged ₦7.8bn Fraud: EFCC Arraigns Emefiele for Unlawful Possession of 753 Housing Units, 16 June 2025, url

    ↩︎

  26. Chatham House, Taking action against corruption in Nigeria – Summary, 18 March 2025, url

    ↩︎

  27. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  28. France24, Nigerian president sacks board of state oil company, 2 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  29. BBC News, Could Nigeria's careful ethnic balancing act be under threat?, 27 May 2025, url

    ↩︎

  30. EEAS, 2024 Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World, 22 May 2025, url, p. 127

    ↩︎

  31. World Bank, The World Bank in Nigeria, last updated 10 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  32. IOM, Nigeria Crisis Response, 2024-2025, url, p. 4

    ↩︎

  33. IOM, Nigeria Crisis Response, 2024-2025, url, p. 4

    ↩︎

  34. EEAS, 2024 Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World, 22 May 2025, url, p. 127

    ↩︎

  35. BBC News, Nigeria Country Profile, 28 July 2023, url; Nigeria, NHRC, Freedom Of Religion And Belief In Nigeria: A Survey 2024, url, p. 6

    ↩︎

  36. Population figures are based on estimates and projections from World Population Prospects 2024 and Model-based Estimates and Projections of Family Planning Indicators 2024 (UNFPA, Population Division). See UNFPA, State of the World Population Report 2025 ‘The Real Fertility Crisis: The pursuit of reproductive agency in a changing world’, 16 June 2025, url, pp. 139, 142

    ↩︎

  37. World Bank, The World Bank in Nigeria, last updated 10 April 2025, url; International Crisis Group, Crisis Watch Nigeria 2024 -2025, url

    ↩︎

  38. Ojewale, O., Violence is endemic in north central Nigeria: what communities are doing to cope, The Conversation, 23 June 2021, url; The term ‘Middle Belt’ usually refers to the following States: Benue, FCT, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau. Source: Oasdom, List of Middle Belt States in Nigeria, 1 June 2020, url; But some would also add Adamawa and Taraba, as well as ‘the southern parts of Kaduna State, Kebbi State, Bauchi State, Gombe State, Yobe State and Borno State. Source: Legit, List of Middle Belt states in Nigeria: which ones are they?, 19 September 2022, url

    ↩︎

  39. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Nigeria – People, last updated 4 July 2025, url

    ↩︎

  40. Pew Research Center, How the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2020, 9 June 2025, url, pp. 49, 56

    ↩︎

  41. USCIRF, USCIRF–Recommended For Countries Of Particular Concern (Cpc), Nigeria, May 2024, url

    ↩︎

  42. Pew Research Center, How the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2020, 9 June 2025, url, pp. 49, 56, 113, 193

    ↩︎

  43. Nigeria, NHRC, Freedom Of Religion And Belief In Nigeria: A Survey 2024, url, p. 5

    ↩︎

  44. UN OHCHR, The Core International Human Rights Instruments and their monitoring bodies, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  45. UN OHCHR, UN Treaty Body Database, Nigeria, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  46. UNTC, Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 28 July 1951, Status at 22 September 2025, url

    ↩︎

  47. UN OHCHR, UN Treaty Body Database, Nigeria, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  48. AI, The State of the World's Human Rights; Nigeria 2024, 29 April 2025, url; HRW, World Report 2025 (Events of 2024), Nigeria, 16 January 2025, url; EEAS, 2024 Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World, 22 May 2025, url, p. 127

    ↩︎

  49. PLAC, Nigeria Annual Human Rights Report 2024, December 2024, url, p. 5

    ↩︎

  50. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  51. AI, The State of the World's Human Rights; Nigeria, 29 April 2025, url; PLAC, Nigeria Annual Human Rights Report 2024, December 2024, url, p. 5

    ↩︎

  52. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url; FIJ, Highlighting Monthly Attacks on Nigerian Journalists Since World Press Freedom 2024, 6 May 2025, url

    ↩︎

  53. AI, The State of the World's Human Rights; Nigeria, 29 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  54. HRW, World Report 2025 (Events of 2024), Nigeria, 16 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  55. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  56. Nigeria Watch, Fourteenth Report on Violence 2024, url, pp. 8-12

    ↩︎

  57. Wiehler, C. and Malefakis, M., Time to Make ‘Peace’ with the Bandits, CSS, April 2024, url, p. 1

    ↩︎

  58. International Crisis Group, Restoring Nigeria’s Leadership for Regional Peace and Security, 11 December 2024, url, p. 8

    ↩︎

  59. HumAngle, What Is The Real Cause Of Attacks In Nigeria’s Middle Belt?, 4 February 2024, url

    ↩︎

  60. Conversation (The), Nigeria’s growing security crisis: 6 essential reads, 22 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  61. Badiora, A.I., Terror attacks and kidnappings spread in Nigeria: why Lagos could be a target, The Conversation, 25 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  62. Conversation (The), Nigeria’s growing security crisis: 6 essential reads, 22 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  63. AI, The State of the World's Human Rights; Nigeria, 29 April 2025, url; AI, Nigeria: Escalation of mob violence emboldens impunity, 28 October 2024, url; DW, How Nigeria can stop rising 'jungle justice', 14 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  64. HRW, World Report 2025 (Events of 2024), Nigeria, 16 January 2025, url; AI, The State of the World's Human Rights; Nigeria, 29 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  65. HRW, World Report 2025 (Events of 2024), Nigeria, 16 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  66. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url; Guardian (The), Reports of extrajudicial killings, sexual violence setback to counter-insurgency operations, 13 September 2024, url

    ↩︎

  67. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025– Nigeria, 2025, url; USDOS, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Nigeria, 26 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  68. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025– Nigeria, 2025, url

    ↩︎

  69. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025– Nigeria, 2025, url; USDOS, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Nigeria, 26 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  70. Ishola, A. V., Religious blasphemy, jungle justice, and legal pluralism in Northern Nigeria: A comparative analysis of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution and Sharia Law, 29 August 2024, url, p. 61

    ↩︎

  71. HRW, “Political Shari’a”? Human Rights and Islamic Law in Northern Nigeria, 21 September 2004, url

    ↩︎

  72. West Africa Weekly, Explainer: Sharia Expansion in South-West Nigeria – Should Citizens be Concerned?, 27 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  73. Guardian (The), Group demands removal of Sharia provisions from 1999 constitution, 9 June 2025, url; West Africa Weekly, Explainer: Sharia Expansion in South-West Nigeria – Should Citizens be Concerned?, 27 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  74. Ishola, A. V., Religious blasphemy, jungle justice, and legal pluralism in Northern Nigeria: A comparative analysis of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution and Sharia Law, 29 August 2024, url, p. 61; Guardian (The), Group demands removal of Sharia provisions from 1999 constitution, 9 June 2025, url; West Africa Weekly, Explainer: Sharia Expansion in South-West Nigeria – Should Citizens be Concerned?, 27 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  75. EP, Human rights breaches in Türkiye, Nicaragua and Nigeria, 13 February 2025, url; EP, European Parliament resolution of 13 February 2025 on continuing detention and risk of the death penalty for individuals in Nigeria charged with blasphemy, notably the case of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu (2025/2548(RSP)), 13 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  76. CFR, An Obnoxious Legislation, 22 January 2025, url; BBC News, Nigerian atheist freed from prison but fears for his life, 8 January 2025, url; Ishola, A. V., Religious blasphemy, jungle justice, and legal pluralism in Northern Nigeria: A comparative analysis of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution and Sharia Law, 29 August 2024, url, p. 61; UN OHCHR, Nigeria: UN experts demand release of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, 16 May 2024, url

    ↩︎

  77. Nigeria, The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Updated with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Alterations (2010), 4th Alteration (2017) and 5th Alteration (2023), September 2024, url

    ↩︎

  78. Ishola, A. V., Religious blasphemy, jungle justice, and legal pluralism in Northern Nigeria: A comparative analysis of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution and Sharia Law, 29 August 2024, url, p. 71

    ↩︎

  79. USCIRF, Country Update Nigeria, August 2024, url, p. 2

    ↩︎

  80. ECOWAS, ECOWAS Court Rules Nigerian Blasphemy Laws Violate International Human Rights Standards, 9 April 2025, url, XIII (153.iii)

    ↩︎

  81. Ishola, A. V., Religious blasphemy, jungle justice, and legal pluralism in Northern Nigeria: A comparative analysis of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution and Sharia Law, 29 August 2024, url, p. 71

    ↩︎

  82. BBC News, Nigerian atheist freed from prison but fears for his life, 8 January 2025, url; CFR, An Obnoxious Legislation, 22 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  83. USCIRF, Country Update Nigeria, August 2024, url, p. 2

    ↩︎

  84. BBC News, Nigerian atheist freed from prison but fears for his life, 8 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  85. AI, Nigeria: Singer on death row denied medical care, 3 March 2025, url

    ↩︎

  86. EP, European Parliament resolution of 13 February 2025 on continuing detention and risk of the death penalty for individuals in Nigeria charged with blasphemy, notably the case of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu (2025/2548(RSP)), 13 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  87. Vigilante violence refers to unlawful acts by community-based security groups who take ‘the law into their own hands’, often carrying out extra-judicial killings, torture, or punishments without due process. See Guardian (the), How vigilante groups constitute danger to life despite role in security, 24 May 2025, url

    ↩︎

  88. ECOWAS, ECOWAS Court Rules Nigerian Blasphemy Laws Violate International Human Rights Standards, 9 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  89. Ishola, A. V., Religious blasphemy, jungle justice, and legal pluralism in Northern Nigeria: A comparative analysis of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution and Sharia Law, 29 August 2024, url, p. 61

    ↩︎

  90. AI, Grave Health Concerns for Singer on Death Row, 17 February 2025, url, p. 2

    ↩︎

  91. EEAS, 2024 Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World, 22 May 2025, url, p. 127

    ↩︎

  92. AI, Nigeria: Singer on death row denied medical care, 3 March 2025, url

    ↩︎

  93. Guardian (The), Long-term imprisonment as political compromise for death penalty, 12 March 2025, url

    ↩︎

  94. Premium Times, Senate passes bill prescribing death sentence for drug traffickers, 9 May 2024, url; Reuters, Nigeria’s Senate proposes death penalty for drug trafficking, 9 May 2024, url

    ↩︎

  95. Harm Reduction International, The Death Penalty For Drug Offences: Global Overview 2024, 12 March 2025, url; AI, 2025 World Drug Day: UNODC and CND must take urgent action to end unlawful use of the death penalty for drug-related offences, 25 June 2025, url

    ↩︎

  96. Guardian (The), Long-term imprisonment as political compromise for death penalty, 12 March 2025, url

    ↩︎

  97. AI, Urgent Action: Grave Health Concerns For Singer On Death Row, 17 February 2025, url; ACHPR, Resolution on the United Nations General Assembly Biannual Vote Calling For a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty – ACHPR/Res.614 (LXXXI) 2024, 14 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  98. UN OHCHR, Nigeria: UN experts demand release of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, 16 May 2024, url; EP, European Parliament resolution of 13 February 2025 on continuing detention and risk of the death penalty for individuals in Nigeria charged with blasphemy, notably the case of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu (2025/2548(RSP)), 13 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  99. AI, Urgent Action: Grave Health Concerns For Singer On Death Row, 17 February 2025, url; ACHPR, Resolution on the United Nations General Assembly Biannual Vote Calling For a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty – ACHPR/Res.614 (LXXXI) 2024, 14 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  100. UN OHCHR, Nigeria: Urgent measures needed to end torture and ill-treatment, says experts, 23 September 2024, url; EEAS, 2024 Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World, 22 May 2025, url, p. 127

    ↩︎

  101. DW, What’s behind Nigeria’s increase in jailbreaks?, 4 March 2025, url

    ↩︎

  102. DW, What’s behind Nigeria’s increase in jailbreaks?, 4 March 2025, url

    ↩︎

  103. UNDOC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2024, 11 December 2024, url, p. 34

    ↩︎

  104. ILO, Nigeria Forced Labour Survey 2022, 2024, url, p. 12

    ↩︎

  105. Amune, M. S., Control and Regulation of Human Trafficking in Nigeria: A Legal Framework Analysis, 13 January 2025, url, p. 31; Nigeria, Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition), Enforcement and Administration Act N. 4, 2015, url, Part II, 5

    ↩︎

  106. UNDOC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2024, 11 December 2024, url, p. 34

    ↩︎

  107. Ukhami, E. I. et al., The Role of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), in Combating Human Trafficking in Nigeria, June 2024, url, pp. 174, 181; Punch, Harrowing tales of survivors trapped in the web of trafficking, 14 July 2024, url

    ↩︎

  108. IOM, Final Evaluation Workshops Shed Light on Increased Support for Survivors of Trafficking in West Africa, 24 September 2024, url

    ↩︎

  109. See Bibliography. For previous data see EUAA 2024 Nigeria Country Focus Report and 2021 EUAA Nigeria Trafficking in Human Beings Report.

    ↩︎

  110. Walk Free Foundation uses the term ‘modern slavery’ to refer to different phenomena such as: ‘forced labour, forced or servile marriage, debt bondage, forced commercial sexual exploitation, human trafficking, slavery-like practices, and the sale and exploitation of children’. Walk Free Foundation, The Global Slavery Index 2023, 16 June 2023, url, p. 2

    ↩︎

  111. Walk Free Foundation, The Global Slavery Index 2023, 16 June 2023, url, p. 78

    ↩︎

  112. IOM, Final Evaluation Workshops Shed Light on Increased Support for Survivors of Trafficking in West Africa, 24 September 2024, url

    ↩︎

  113. Lawal S. A. and Yekini, A., The Legal and Institutional Frameworks Aimed at Curbing Human Trafficking in Nigeria, 18 February 2025, url, p. 2; IOM, Profile of Nigerian Victims of Human Trafficking since 2017, 31 March 2024, url, p. 3

    ↩︎

  114. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  115. Guardian (The), HURIWA seeks emergency action on baby factories, child trafficking, 28 May 2025, url; Vanguard, NAPTIP decries surge in baby factories, sale of children across Nigeria, 20 May 2024, url

    ↩︎

  116. IOM, Profile of Nigerian Victims of Human Trafficking since 2017, 31 March 2024, url, p. 6; USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  117. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url;

    ↩︎

  118. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url; HRW, World Report 2025 (Events of 2024), Nigeria, 16 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  119. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url; CTDC, Country Profile: Victims originating in Nigeria, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  120. UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2024, 11 December 2024, url, p. 57

    ↩︎

  121. EC, Report from the commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the progress made in the European Union in combating trafficking in human beings (Fifth Report), {SWD(2025) 4 final}, 20 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  122. IOM conducted an analysis of the profiles of Nigerian victims of trafficking based on data they collected from 2017 until Q1 2024 and derived from individuals assisted by the IOM, who have been identified as victims of trafficking. See IOM, Profile of Nigerian Victims of Human Trafficking since 2017, 31 March 2024, url, p. 3

    ↩︎

  123. IOM, Profile of Nigerian Victims of Human Trafficking since 2017, 31 March 2024, url, pp. 4, 6, 7

    ↩︎

  124. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025; Punch, Harrowing tales of survivors trapped in the web of trafficking, 14 July 2024, url

    ↩︎

  125. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url; USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  126. UNODC, Chapter 2 – Trafficking in persons in and from Africa; a global responsibility, 2024, url, p. 72

    ↩︎

  127. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  128. INTERPOL, Sex trafficking in women in West and North Africa and towards Europe, June 2025, url, p. 16

    ↩︎

  129. BBC News, World's police in technological arms race with Nigerian mafia, 28 August 2024, url; Africa Center for Strategic Studies, Black Axe—Nigeria’s Most Notorious Transnational Criminal Organization, 29 October 2024, url

    ↩︎

  130. HumAngle, New Sect Linked to Human Trafficking Emerges in Nigeria, 20 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  131. BBC News, Nigeria’s Miracle Baby Scammers – BBC Africa Eye Documentary [Online video], 25 November 2024, url; Okorie, M. M., and Okeja, U., Prosecuting human traffickers in Nigeria: victim-witnessing and community-oriented challenges, 8 October 2024, url, p. 9

    ↩︎

  132. Okorie, M. M., and Okeja, U., Prosecuting human traffickers in Nigeria: victim-witnessing and community-oriented challenges, 8 October 2024, url, p. 12

    ↩︎

  133. UN Women, Assessment of national responses and strategies to combat and eliminate trafficking in persons and forced migration in Africa, January 2024, url, pp. 14-15

    ↩︎

  134. IRARA Nigeria is an NGO with headquarters in Benin city (Edo State) that supports returnees by providing temporary accommodation and reintegration assistance. IRARA Nigeria is also an implementing partner of the Frontex Reintegration Programme. See IRARA, Reintegration, n.d., url; IRARA Nigeria, Joint Reintegration Services, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  135. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  136. IOM, Profile of Nigerian Victims of Human Trafficking since 2017, 31 March 2024, url, pp. 11, 12

    ↩︎

  137. INTERPOL, Sex trafficking in women in West and North Africa and towards Europe, June 2025, url, pp. 13, 14

    ↩︎

  138. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  139. Punch, Harrowing tales of survivors trapped in the web of trafficking, 14 July 2024, url

    ↩︎

  140. INTERPOL, Sex trafficking in women in West and North Africa and towards Europe, June 2025, url, pp. 6, 13

    ↩︎

  141. IOM, Profile of Nigerian Victims of Human Trafficking since 2017, 31 March 2024, url, pp. 11, 12

    ↩︎

  142. Juju is a term commonly used to describe the traditional spiritual practices of the Yoruba people. It is a belief system that involves the use of objects like amulets and the casting of spells, often associated with witchcraft. Juju is prevalent in West Africa, particularly among communities in Nigeria. See Counter Trafficking Network, Tutorial: Juju & Witchcraft, 2020, url, p. 1

    ↩︎

  143. EUAA, Nigeria Trafficking in Human Beings, April 2021, url; Forced Migration Review, Trafficking, ritual oaths and criminal investigations, n.d., url; Adeyinka, S. et al., The role of Juju rituals in human trafficking of Nigerians: A tool of enslavement, but also escape, 22 November 2023, url

    ↩︎

  144. Adeyinka, S. et al., The role of Juju rituals in human trafficking of Nigerians: A tool of enslavement, but also escape, 22 November 2023, url

    ↩︎

  145. INTERPOL, Sex trafficking in women in West and North Africa and towards Europe, June 2025, url, p. 13

    ↩︎

  146. OCCRP, Nigeria Nabs Trafficking, Robbery Syndicate Leaders, 7 May 2025, url; Belgium, MYRIA, Rapport annuel d’evaluation 2024 Traite et traffic des etres humains, [Annual Evaluation Report Human Trafficking 2024], 18 December 2024, url, p. 98

    ↩︎

  147. Edo state, in particular, Benin City has been the central hub for sex trafficking from Nigeria to Europe for the last decades. See EUAA, Nigeria Trafficking in Human Beings, April 2021, url, p. 16

    ↩︎

  148. Reuters, Black magic ban dents sex trafficking in Nigeria, 19 September 2018, url; TIME, An Ancient Curse Kept Nigerian Women Bound to Sex Slavery. Now, It’s Been Reversed, 17 April 2018, url

    ↩︎

  149. Dr Sarah Adeyinka is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Amsterdam, with extensive expertise on human trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence research among people in situations of vulnerability, particularly refugees and asylum seekers. She is also the founder and board chair of CoCreate VZW (Belgium) and CoCreate Humanitarian Aid Foundation (Nigeria), NGOs that provide training and consultancy services to anti-trafficking organisations, caregivers, and first-line responders in Belgium and Nigeria. CoCreate also provides support victims of trafficking in partnership with organisations on ground in Nigeria and Italy.

    ↩︎

  150. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  151. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025; Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  152. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  153. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  154. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  155. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  156. EC, Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the progress made in the European Union in combating trafficking in human beings (Fifth Report), 20 January 2025, url; CoE, Fourth Evaluation Rounder Measures to prevent and detect vulnerabilities to human trafficking – Evaluation Report Austria, 11 March 2025, url, p. 5

    ↩︎

  157. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, Black Axe—Nigeria’s Most Notorious Transnational Criminal Organization, 29 October 2024, url

    ↩︎

  158. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url; CTDC, Country Profile: Victims originating in Nigeria, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  159. IOM, Profile of Nigerian Victims of Human Trafficking since 2017, 31 March 2024, url, pp. 4-7

    ↩︎

  160. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  161. Guardian (The), HURIWA seeks emergency action on baby factories, child trafficking, 28 May 2025, url; Vanguard, NAPTIP decries surge in baby factories, sale of children across Nigeria, 20 May 2024, url

    ↩︎

  162. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url;

    ↩︎

  163. DW, Why Nigeria’s ‘baby factories’ continue to thrive, 18 March 2024, url; BBC News, ‘Pregnant’ for 15 months: Inside the ‘miracle’ fertility scam, 25 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  164. Eziechine, A. O. and Esene. Q. O., Baby Factory Syndicate: An Emerging Trends of Trafficking in Agunloye’s Disposable Womb, June 2024, url, p. 165

    ↩︎

  165. DW, Why Nigeria’s ‘baby factories’ continue to thrive, 18 March 2024, url; Guardian (The), HURIWA seeks emergency action on baby factories, child trafficking, 28 May 2025, url

    ↩︎

  166. Vanguard, NAPTIP decries surge in baby factories, sale of children across Nigeria, 20 May 2024, url; DW, Why Nigeria’s ‘baby factories’ continue to thrive, 18 March 2024, url; BBC News, ‘Pregnant’ for 15 months: Inside the ‘miracle’ fertility scam, 25 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  167. Eziechine, A. O. and Esene. Q. O., Baby Factory Syndicate: An Emerging Trends of Trafficking in Agunloye’s Disposable Womb, June 2024, url, p. 166

    ↩︎

  168. Guardian (The), HURIWA seeks emergency action on baby factories, child trafficking, 28 May 2025, url

    ↩︎

  169. Cable (The), NAPTIP rescues ‘nine pregnant women’ from Abuja baby factory, 23 January 2025, url; USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  170. DW, Why Nigeria’s ‘baby factories’ continue to thrive, 18 March 2024, url; BBC News, ‘Pregnant’ for 15 months: Inside the ‘miracle’ fertility scam, 25 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  171. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  172. Adegbite, A., Baby-Making Factories in Nigeria: A ‘Crime’ Begging for Legal Identity?, 14 June 2024, url, p. 71

    ↩︎

  173. BBC, Nigeria’s Miracle Baby Scammers – BBC Africa Eye Documentary [Online video], 25 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  174. Cable (The), NAPTIP rescues ‘nine pregnant women’ from Abuja baby factory, 23 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  175. Eziechine, A. O. and Esene. Q. O., Baby Factory Syndicate: An Emerging Trends of Trafficking in Agunloye’s Disposable Womb, June 2024, url, p. 165

    ↩︎

  176. PLAC, Nigeria Annual Human Rights Report 2024, December 2024, url, p. 53

    ↩︎

  177. Cable (The), NAPTIP rescues ‘nine pregnant women’ from Abuja baby factory, 23 January 2025, url; Punch, Police bust Lagos baby factory, rescue 10 victims, 8 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  178. DW, Why Nigeria’s ‘baby factories’ continue to thrive, 18 March 2024, url

    ↩︎

  179. UN Women, Assessment of national responses and strategies to combat and eliminate trafficking in persons and forced migration in Africa, January 2024, url , pp. 5, 8

    ↩︎

  180. PLAC, Nigeria Annual Human Rights Report 2024, December 2024, url, p. 50

    ↩︎

  181. Nigeria, FMWASD, National Beijing +30 review, November 2024, url, p. 62

    ↩︎

  182. AP, In Nigeria’s lithium boom, many mines are illegal and children do much of the work, 12 December 2024, url

    ↩︎

  183. UNODC, Human trafficking, n.d., url; USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  184. OCCRP, Nigerian authorities Take Down Child Trafficking Syndicates, 23 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  185. OCCRP, Nigerian Pastor Arrested in Major Child-Trafficking Bust, 13 Children Rescued, 7 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  186. Vanguard, NAPTIP decries surge in baby factories, sale of children across Nigeria, 20 May 2024, url; DW, Why Nigeria’s ‘baby factories’ continue to thrive, 18 March 2024, url; BBC News, ‘Pregnant’ for 15 months: Inside the ‘miracle’ fertility scam, 25 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  187. Guardian (The), HURIWA seeks emergency action on baby factories, child trafficking, 28 May 2025, url

    ↩︎

  188. Eziechine, A. O. and Esene. Q. O., Baby Factory Syndicate: An Emerging Trends of Trafficking in Agunloye’s Disposable Womb, June 2024, url, p. 166

    ↩︎

  189. UN Women, Assessment of national responses and strategies to combat and eliminate trafficking in persons and forced migration in Africa, January 2024, url, p. 7

    ↩︎

  190. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  191. HumAngle, New Sect Linked to Human Trafficking Emerges in Nigeria, 20 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  192. Nigeria Police Force, [Twitter], posted on: 20 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  193. OCCRP, Nigerian Authorities Take Down Child Trafficking Syndicates, 23 January 2025, url; Nigeria Police Force, [Twitter], posted on: 20 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  194. HumAngle, New Sect Linked to Human Trafficking Emerges in Nigeria, 20 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  195. Freedom House, Freedom in the world 2025, Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  196. Vanguard, How illegal miners wreak havoc on Nigeria — Investigation, 17 February 2024, url

    ↩︎

  197. ILO, Forced Labour in Nigeria - At a glance, April 2024, url

    ↩︎

  198. INTERPOL, More than 300 arrests as African countries clamp down on cyber threats, 24 March 2025, url

    ↩︎

  199. Punch, Over 200 trafficked Nigerians in Ghana to return Friday, 24 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  200. Sports and Crime Briefing, Fake Agents Traffic Thousands of Players from Africa a Year – Super – Agent Speaks Out, 16 January 2025, url; Info Migrants, Africa’s young soccer players exploited, abandoned to their fate in Spain, 25 April 2024, url

    ↩︎

  201. New Lines Magazine, They Dreamed of Making It Big in Soccer. They Were Trafficked Instead, 9 October 2024, url

    ↩︎

  202. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  203. Chatham House, Tracing the ‘continuum of violence’ between Nigeria and Libya, 5 August 2024, url

    ↩︎

  204. Adeyinka, S., & Kuschminder, K., Reintegration Governance in Nigeria. Reintegrate Project, University of Amsterdam, 2025, url, pp. 3-4; Senior representative at NCFRMI, online interview with EUAA, 6 August 2025

    ↩︎

  205. Adeyinka, S., & Kuschminder, K., Reintegration Governance in Nigeria. Reintegrate Project, University of Amsterdam, 2025, url, pp. 3-4

    ↩︎

  206. NACTAL, NACTAL participates in stakeholders meeting to discuss issues affecting the girl child in Nigeria, 24 September 2024, url; NACTAL, Kwara NACTAL organized stakeholders’ consultative meeting to combating human trafficking, 7 June 2023, url

    ↩︎

  207. IOM Nigeria, Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  208. IOM, About the EU-IOM Joint Initiative, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  209. IOM, IOM Facilitates Voluntary Return of Stranded Migrants from Chad to Nigeria under EU-Funded Programme, 23 July 2025, url

    ↩︎

  210. Adeyinka, S., & Kuschminder, K., Reintegration Governance in Nigeria. Reintegrate Project, University of Amsterdam, 2025, url, p. 4

    ↩︎

  211. IOM, Reintegration and Empowerment: IOM Launches Reintegration Business Training for Human Trafficking Survivors in Nigeria, 18 April 2024, url

    ↩︎

  212. Uzomah, N. L. et al., Navigating the Complexities of Return Migration and Reintegration, 2024, url, pp. 14-15

    ↩︎

  213. Vatican News, Nigeria Conference of Women Religious against Human Trafficking commemorate Bahkita Day, 8 February 2025, url; Our Sunday Visitor, Introducing the sisters who are rescuing victims of human trafficking in Nigeria, 17 April 2024, url

    ↩︎

  214. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  215. Nigeria, NAPTIP, Director-General’s Year Three Performance Report & Three Years Performance Overview, September 2023 – August 2024, 4 November 2024, url, p. 47

    ↩︎

  216. IOM conducted an analysis of the profiles of Nigerian victims of trafficking based on data collected by IOM from 2017 to Q1 2024. Most of this data is derived from individuals assisted by IOM, who have been identified as victims of trafficking. See IOM, Profile of Nigerian Victims of Human Trafficking since 2017, 31 March 2024, url, p. 3

    ↩︎

  217. IOM, Profile of Nigerian Victims of Human Trafficking since 2017, 31 March 2024, url, pp. 4, 6, 7, 12

    ↩︎

  218. Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

    ↩︎

  219. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  220. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  221. Nigeria, NAPTIP, Director-General’s Year Three Performance Report & Three Years Performance Overview, September 2023 – August 2024, 4 November 2024, url, p. 10

    ↩︎

  222. Nigeria, NAPTIP, Counselling & Rehabilitation Department, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  223. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  224. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  225. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025; USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  226. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  227. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  228. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  229. Senior representative at NCFRMI, online interview with EUAA, 6 August 2025

    ↩︎

  230. SEYP, email communication with EUAA, 25 September 2025

    ↩︎

  231. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  232. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  233. IRARA Nigeria, Joint Reintegration Services, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  234. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  235. UN Women, Assessment of national responses and strategies to combat and eliminate trafficking in persons and forced migration in Africa, January 2024, url, p. 10; Adewumi, S., Negotiating access and belonging, 8 May 2024, url, pp. 18-19; Uzomah, N. L. et al., Navigating the Complexities of Return Migration and Reintegration, 2024, url, p. 15; Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  236. Uzomah, N. L. et al., Navigating the Complexities of Return Migration and Reintegration, 2024, url, p. 15

    ↩︎

  237. IOM, Nigerian women defying stigma upon return, n.d, url

    ↩︎

  238. UN Women, Assessment of national responses and strategies to combat and eliminate trafficking in persons and forced migration in Africa, January 2024, url, pp. 14-15

    ↩︎

  239. IOM, Profile of Nigerian Victims of Human Trafficking since 2017, 31 March 2024, url, pp. 4, 6, 7, 12; EUAA did not receive further details and clarification from IOM on these topics.

    ↩︎

  240. UN Women, Assessment of national responses and strategies to combat and eliminate trafficking in persons and forced migration in Africa, January 2024, url, p. 10

    ↩︎

  241. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  242. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

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  243. Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

    ↩︎

  244. Uzomah, N. L. et al., Navigating the Complexities of Return Migration and Reintegration, 2024, url, p. 15; Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  245. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  246. Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

    ↩︎

  247. Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

    ↩︎

  248. Senior representative at NCFRMI, online interview with EUAA, 6 August 2025

    ↩︎

  249. Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

    ↩︎

  250. Uzomah, N. L. et al., Navigating the Complexities of Return Migration and Reintegration, 2024, url, p. 15

    ↩︎

  251. Adewumi, S., Negotiating access and belonging, 8 May 2024, url, pp. 18-20

    ↩︎

  252. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  253. Derluyin I., et al., ChildMove: The impact of flight experiences on the psychological wellbeing of unaccompanied refugee minors, Ghent University, 2022, url

    ↩︎

  254. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  255. The Women's Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON) is an NGO with headquarters in Lagos, providing support to women survivors of violence and trafficking, including returnees. See WOCON, About us, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  256. Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

    ↩︎

  257. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  258. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025; Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  259. UN Women, Assessment of national responses and strategies to combat and eliminate trafficking in persons and forced migration in Africa, January 2024, url , pp. 14-15

    ↩︎

  260. This Day, Bringing Trafficked Girls Back Not Enough, There Must Be Reintegration and Rehabilitation 21 May 2025, url

    ↩︎

  261. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  262. Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

    ↩︎

  263. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  264. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  265. UN Women, Assessment of national responses and strategies to combat and eliminate trafficking in persons and forced migration in Africa, January 2024, url, pp. 14-15

    ↩︎

  266. Walk Free Foundation, The Global Slavery Index 2023, 16 June 2023, url, pp. 76, 81

    ↩︎

  267. Amune, M. S., Control and Regulation of Human Trafficking in Nigeria: A Legal Framework Analysis, 13 January 2025, url, pp. 31-32

    ↩︎

  268. Amune, M. S., Control and Regulation of Human Trafficking in Nigeria: A Legal Framework Analysis, 13 January 2025, url, pp. 31-32

    ↩︎

  269. IOM, Nigeria Crisis Response Plan 2024-2025, 17 December 2024, url, p. 7

    ↩︎

  270. UNHCR, Where we work, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  271. INTERPOL, How INTERPOL supports Nigeria to tackle international crime, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  272. EMN, Trafficking in human beings – the international dimension, July 2025, url, pp. 22, 32, 88

    ↩︎

  273. Premium Times, Kano: NAPTIP rescues 285 victims, arrests 22 human traffickers in 2024, 9 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  274. Daily Post, NAPTIP rescues 253 victims, obtained 9 convictions in 2024, 16 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  275. Nigeria, NAPTIP, DIA Operatives Bust Transnational Organized Human Trafficking Syndicate in Nigeria: Arrest Three Suspects, Rescue 20 Foreign Victims, 13 June 2025, url

    ↩︎

  276. Nigeria, NAPTIP, NAPTIP blows hot! Scuttles Trafficking of Recruited Nigerians to Iraq; Intercepts 13 Victims at Naia, Abuja, 19 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  277. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  278. Senior representative at NCFRMI, online interview with EUAA, 6 August 2025

    ↩︎

  279. ICIR, Corruption among law enforcement agencies slowing fight against human trafficking, NAPTIP says, 25 July 2024, url; USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url; Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

    ↩︎

  280. Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

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  281. Amune, M. S., Control and Regulation of Human Trafficking in Nigeria: A Legal Framework Analysis, 13 January 2025, url, pp. 31-32

    ↩︎

  282. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  283. Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

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  284. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

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  285. Amune, M. S., Control and Regulation of Human Trafficking in Nigeria: A Legal Framework Analysis, 13 January 2025, url, pp. 31-32; Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025; Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025; Senior representative at NCFRMI, online interview with EUAA, 6 August 2025

    ↩︎

  286. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  287. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

    ↩︎

  288. Okorie, M. M. and Okeja U., Prosecuting human traffickers in Nigeria: victim-witnessing and community-oriented challenges, 8 October 2024, url, pp. 1, 12, 14

    ↩︎

  289. Nwoha R., online interview with EUAA, 18 July 2025

    ↩︎

  290. Senior representative at NCFRMI, online interview with EUAA, 6 August 2025

    ↩︎

  291. USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 – Nigeria, (covering April 2023 to March 2024), 24 June 2024, url; Premium Times, Nigerian woman jailed for trafficking 12 girls abroad for sexual exploitation, 4 October 2023, url

    ↩︎

  292. Nigeria, NAPTIP, Director-General’s Year Three Performance Report & Three Years Performance Overview, September 2023 – August 2024, 4 November 2024, url, p. 46

    ↩︎

  293. Nigeria, The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Updated with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Alterations (2010), 4th Alteration (2017) and 5th Alteration (2023), September 2024, url

    ↩︎

  294. Kehinde, O. J. and Abdulraheem, M., Prohibition of Discriminatory Laws and Practices Against Women’s Rights in Nigeria, 29 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  295. UN OHCHR, Ratification Status for Nigeria, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  296. Kehinde, O. J. and Abdulraheem, M., Prohibition of Discriminatory Laws and Practices Against Women’s Rights in Nigeria, 29 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  297. UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review – Nigeria, 26 March 2024, url, paragraph 152.23; Alita, E. C. et al., The United Nations and the Pursuit of Gender Equality in Nigeria: A Critical Analysis of CEDAW Implementation and Challenges, 12 December 2024, url

    ↩︎

  298. Njila, M. M., An analysis of the Legal Framework for the Protection of Women Against Discriminatory Practices in Nigeria, 8 September 2024, url, p. 82; Kehinde, O. J. and Abdulraheem, M., Prohibition of Discriminatory Laws and Practices Against Women’s Rights in Nigeria, 29 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  299. For instance, Chapter III, Section 26 of the Constitution limits a Nigerian woman’s ability to confer citizenship on her foreign spouse. See Nigeria, The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Updated with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Alterations (2010), 4th Alteration (2017) and 5th Alteration (2023), September 2024, url, Chapter III, Section 26; Kehinde, O. J. and Abdulraheem, M., Prohibition of Discriminatory Laws and Practices Against Women’s Rights in Nigeria, 29 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  300. Kehinde, O. J. and Abdulraheem, M., Prohibition of Discriminatory Laws and Practices Against Women’s Rights in Nigeria, 29 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  301. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url; Kehinde, O. J. and Abdulraheem, M., Prohibition of Discriminatory Laws and Practices Against Women’s Rights in Nigeria, 29 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  302. EEAS, 2024 Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World (country profiles), 22 May 2025, url, p. 127; Initiative for Equal Rights, 2024 Human Rights Violations Report, January 2025, url, pp. 33-34

    ↩︎

  303. Ayamba, I. et al., U. S., National Gender Policy in Nigeria: Uncovering the Core Issues, October 2024, url, p. 89; Njila, M. M., An analysis of the Legal Framework for the Protection of Women Against Discriminatory Practices in Nigeria, 8 September 2024, url, p. 82

    ↩︎

  304. Kehinde, O. J. and Abdulraheem, M., Prohibition of Discriminatory Laws and Practices Against Women’s Rights in Nigeria, 29 November 2024, url

    ↩︎

  305. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  306. Nigeria, FMWASD, National Beijing +30 review, November 2024, url, p. 36; Conversation (The), Nigerian children don’t imagine women as political leaders: what shapes their view 3 June 2025, url

    ↩︎

  307. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  308. WEF, Global Gender Gap Report 2025: Nigeria, Economic profiles, 11 June 2025, url, p. 40

    ↩︎

  309. UNFPA, Situation Report – Armed conflict in North-East Nigeria continues to place lives at risk, 5 February 2025, url, p.1

    ↩︎

  310. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  311. Nigeria Health Watch, Nigeria’s Health System Must Eliminate Obstacles to Maternal Care for Women with Disabilities, 17 March 2025, url; Global Disability Fund, Situational Analysis on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria, Country Full Report, May 2025, url, pp. 49-50; BBC Media Action, Using radio drama to tackle attitudes towards family planning in Northern Nigeria, November 2024, url, p. 1

    ↩︎

  312. Eziechine, A. O. and Esene, Q. O., Baby Factory Syndicate: An Emerging Trend of Trafficking in Angunloye’s Disposable Womb, June 2024, url, p. 166

    ↩︎

  313. Marwa, Z. and Mainoma, H. M., Evaluating the incidence of poverty among unemployed and unmarried women in North Central Nigeria, February 2024, url, p. 113

    ↩︎

  314. Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

    ↩︎

  315. Daily Trust, Stereotypes, Biases Women Face In Quest For Accommodation, 14 December 2024, url; HumAngle, What It Costs to Rent a House As A Single Woman in Nigeria, 28 August 2024, url

    ↩︎

  316. HumAngle, What It Costs to Rent a House As A Single Woman in Nigeria, 28 August 2024, url

    ↩︎

  317. Guardian (The), Female Genital Mutilation: Action, not words, needed to end menace, 7 March 2025, url

    ↩︎

  318. Anuforo, P. et al., Influences of Widowhood Cultural Practices, Values, and Beliefs on the Health and Well-being of Nigerian Women: An Integrative Review, 6 October 2024, url; Punch, Heartrending tales of vulnerable widows battling for survival amid soaring cost of living, 1 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  319. Punch, Heartrending tales of vulnerable widows battling for survival amid soaring cost of living, 1 June 2024, url; Uroko, F., ‘Plead the case of the widow’ (Isaiah 1:17): The stigma of widowhood in eastern Nigeria and the needed faith-based interventions, 7 November 2024, url, p. 43

    ↩︎

  320. This day, From Struggle to Strength: Nigerian Widows Find Hope, 25 September 2024, url

    ↩︎

  321. Cookey, M., A legal appraisal of the Inheritance rights of women in Nigeria, October 2024, url, p. 1

    ↩︎

  322. Vivian, A. E., Challenges of Women Inheritance Rights Under the Act and the Various Customs in Nigeria, 18 January 2025, url, p. 42

    ↩︎

  323. Uroko, F., ‘Plead the case of the widow’ (Isaiah 1:17): The stigma of widowhood in eastern Nigeria and the needed faith-based interventions, 7 November 2024, url, p. 43

    ↩︎

  324. Levirate marriage is a custom or law requiring a widow to marry her deceased husband's brother or a close male relative to ensure the deceased's lineage and property continue. See Encyclopaedia Britannica, Levirate, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  325. In some Yoruba communities, widows are expected to keep vigils and demonstrate intense sorrow through ritualised wailing and profuse crying; failure to do so is believed to risk mental illness or loss of entitlements. See Dijeh A. E. et al., Cultural Challenges of Widows and Widowers’ Coping Strategies in SouthSouth Geo Political Zone, Nigeria, 2 February 2025, url, p. 551

    ↩︎

  326. Anuforo, P. et al., Influences of Widowhood Cultural Practices, Values, and Beliefs on the Health and Well-being of Nigerian Women: An Integrative Review, 6 October 2024, url, p. 189

    ↩︎

  327. Grace, O. T., and Tolulope, J. S., The legal framework for protecting the rights of the girl child in Nigeria: How effective?, 2024, url, pp. 85-87; Nigeria, NHRC, Child Rights, n.d., url ; Nigeria, Child Right’s Act, 2003, url, Art. 21, 23, 28, 28, 31, 32, 33

    ↩︎

  328. Nigeria, Criminal Code Act, 1 June 1916, url, Section 1A. The Criminal Code applies in Nigeria’s 17 southern states: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo.

    ↩︎

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  391. The 47 SARCs are as follows: Adamawa (3), Akwa Ibom (2), Anambra (1), Bayelsa (1), Borno (1), Cross River (4), Delta (3), Ebonyi (1), Edo (1), Ekiti (3), Enugu (2), FCT Abuja (2), Jigawa (1), Kaduna (4), Kano (1), Kebbi (1), Lagos (3), Niger (1), Ogun (2), Sokoto (1), Yobe (4), and Zamfara (1). See Her Story Your Story, Directory of Sexual Assault Referral Centres in Nigeria, October 2024, url, p. 1

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  492. No Strings, Gay-obsessed Nigerian pastor calls homosexuality a propaganda, 20 February 2024, url; Peace, A. E., A discursive attempt toward the political economy of homophobia in Nigeria, 12 November 2024, url, p. 5

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  495. CNN, Nigerian transgender TikToker found dead, 9 August 2024, url; VOA, Fear grips Nigeria’s LGBTQ+ community after popular cross-dresser killed, 9 August 2024, url

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  497. TIER, 2024 Human Rights Violations Report, January 2025, url, p. 22. Kito is a term in Nigerian internet slang referring to an individual who pretends to be queer, typically on social media platforms or dating applications, with the intent of luring others into meeting in person. The encounter is not genuine but rather a scheme designed to extort money, inflict physical harm, or otherwise exploit the targeted individual. See Mail & Guardian, What it means to be a kitoed, 28 May 2020, url

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  574. The source is a Nigerian senior security advisor, working for an international research organisation that monitors conflict dynamics across the world. The source wished to remain anonymous for security and operational reasons.

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  577. Daily Trust, 67 CSOs to Tinubu: End Crackdown on Activists, Journalists, Others, 16 January 2025, url; Business Day, #EndBadGovernance Protest Report: CSOs urge Tinubu to halt police harassment of Amnesty International, 16 January 2025, url; Vanguard, 67 CSOs to Tinubu: End crackdown on activists, journalists, others, 15 January 2025, url

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  580. On 4 October 2020, a viral video showing Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) officers allegedly shooting two men sparked the #EndSARS protests on 8 October; the nationwide demonstrations lasted several days, left at least 56 people dead, and led to the disbandment of the unit by Nigerian authorities. See: AI, #EndSARS movement: from Twitter to Nigerian streets, 8 February 2021, url

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  616. Nigerian senior security advisor, online interview with EUAA, 30 July 2025. A central instrument in Biafra’s propaganda strategy during the civil war, Radio Biafra has remained an important communication channel to disseminate official narratives, often biased and falsified. See Wolff, R., Visual Propaganda and Biafran National Identity: Artists Constructing a Nation During Wartime, 27 January 2025, url

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  630. Intersociety is a local NGO whose declared aim is to promote and protect democracy, rule of law, and human rights through research, documentation, advocacy, and public engagement. See Intersociety, About us, n.d., url

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  631. Intersociety, Nigeria’s leading human rights group releases two special international reports on rights abuses and violations in the East, 22 December 2024, url, p. 5

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  644. Punch, Army warns IPOB to stop discouraging Igbo youths from its recruitment exercise, 8 October 2024, url; Public Watch, IPOB Warns Igbo Youths: Do Not Joint Nigerian Army Or Be Killed Cheaply By Northern Terrorists, 8 April 2025, url; Nigerian senior security advisor, online interview with EUAA, 30 July 2025

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  652. International Crisis Group, JAS vs. ISWAP: The War of the Boko Haram Splinters, 28 March 2024, url

    ↩︎

  653. In 2015, Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau pledged allegiance to the ISIS, leading the movement to adopt the name Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). However, internal divisions soon emerged, and in 2016, dissenting members broke away. This splinter group retained the ISWAP name and gained formal recognition from ISIS. Meanwhile, Shekau and his loyalists formed a separate faction, returning to the original designation of Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS). See Crisis Group, JAS vs. ISWAP: The War of the Boko Haram Splinters, 28 March 2024, url

    ↩︎

  654. International Crisis Group, JAS vs. ISWAP: The War of the Boko Haram Splinters, 28 March 2024, url

    ↩︎

  655. Defense Post, Jihadists Kill at Least 40 Farmers in Northeast Nigeria, 14 January 2025, url; Vanguard, Boko Haram massacre farmers, fishermen in Borno for supporting ISWAP, 17 May 2025 url

    ↩︎

  656. HumAngle, ISWAP Attack Devastates Mafa in Northeast Nigeria, Leaving A Grim Toll of Death, 4 September 2024, url

    ↩︎

  657. Defense Post, Jihadists Kill at Least 40 Farmers in Northeast Nigeria,

    ↩︎

  658. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url; UN, Security Council, Report of the Secretary-General on Children and armed conflict in Nigeria, 17 July 2024, url, paras. 3, 5

    ↩︎

  659. HRW, World Report 2025 (Events of 2024), Nigeria, 16 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  660. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

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  661. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  662. UN, Security Council, Report of the Secretary-General on Children and armed conflict in Nigeria, 17 July 2024, url, para. 3

    ↩︎

  663. Pew Research Center, How the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2020, 9 June 2025, url, pp. 49, 56, 113, 193

    ↩︎

  664. USDOS, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Nigeria, 26 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  665. USDOS, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Nigeria, 26 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  666. ICC, Christians in Northern Nigeria Prepare for Christmas Violence, 11 December 2024, url; Daily Trust, Muslim North, Christian North, 14 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  667. West Africa Weekly, Explainer: Sharia Expansion in South-West Nigeria – Should Citizens be Concerned?, 27 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  668. ILGA World, ILGA Database: Nigeria, n.d., url; HRW, World Report 2025 (Events of 2024), Nigeria, 16 January 2025, url; West Africa Weekly, Explainer: Sharia Expansion in South-West Nigeria – Should Citizens be Concerned?, 27 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  669. USDOS, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Nigeria, 26 June 2024, url

    ↩︎

  670. Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url; ADF International, Challenging Nigeria university bans against Christian fellowship on campus, 18 March 2024, url; Daily Post, Religious persecution threatens national stability – Northern CAN, 25 September 2025, url

    ↩︎

  671. Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url

    ↩︎

  672. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025– Nigeria, 2025, url; ORFA, ORFA data reveals the scale of abductions and the targeting of Christian communities, 28 August 2024, url

    ↩︎

  673. NPR, ‘We are being driven from the land.’ Nigerian village buries its dead after a massacre, 26 July 2025, url; Genocide Watch, Fulani Jihadists massacre over 200 Christians in Nigeria, 14 June 2025, url

    ↩︎

  674. Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url; ORFA, Countering the myth of religious indifference in Nigerian terror (10/2019 – 9/2023), 29 August 2024, url, pp. 30-31

    ↩︎

  675. The report covers the period from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2023. Information was collected through five types of sources, including a local partner organization, which collected information on the ground via their network on an ongoing basis; other local partners who also monitor violent incidents; two external sources reporting violent incidents to compare their data against ORFA’s database; and Desk Research / Local Media / NGO reports. For more information, see: ORFA, Nigeria violence incidents – methodology, July 2024, url

    ↩︎

  676. ORFA, Countering the myth of religious indifference in Nigerian terror (10/2019 – 9/2023), 29 August 2024, url, p. 30

    ↩︎

  677. Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url; ORFA, Countering the myth of religious indifference in Nigerian terror (10/2019 – 9/2023), 29 August 2024, url, p. 26

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  678. Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url; BBC, What is behind the wave of killings in central Nigeria?, 19 June 2025, url

    ↩︎

  679. Amnesty International, The State of the World's Human Rights, Nigeria 2024, 29 April 2025, url; FT, Nigeria’s spiralling rural violence heaps pressure on president, 27 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  680. BBC, What is behind the wave of killings in central Nigeria?, 19 June 2025, url; Ojewale, O. and Onuoha, F., Nigeria’s North Central violence reveals systemic state failure, ISS , 26 June 2025, url ; ICC, 9 Killed in Attacks on Nigeria’s Christian Farming Communities, 6 August 2025, url; BISI, The Growth of Farmer-Herder Violence in Nigeria, 26 May 2025, url

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  681. DW, Nigeria's farmer-herder conflicts: Where is the end? [Video], 21 June 2025, url

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  682. Nana, S.S., How to stop Nigeria’s worsening farmer-pastoralist violence, TNH, 5 May 2025, url

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  683. Ojewale, O. and Onuoha, F., Nigeria’s North Central violence reveals systemic state failure, ISS , 26 June 2025, url

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  684. DW, Nigeria's farmer-herder conflicts: Where is the end? [Video], 21 June 2025, url

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  685. FT, Nigeria’s spiralling rural violence heaps pressure on president, 27 April 2025, url

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  686. DW, Nigeria's farmer-herder conflicts: Where is the end? [Video], 21 June 2025, url

    ↩︎

  687. Genocide Watch, Fulani Jihadists massacre over 200 Christians in Nigeria, 14 June 2025, url; ORFA, ORFA data reveals the scale of abductions and the targeting of Christian communities, 28 August 2024, url

    ↩︎

  688. Intersociety, Nigeria Headquartering 22 Islamic Terror Groups in Africa Seeking to Obliterate Christianity And Indigenous Cultural Heritage, August 2025, url, pp 2, 4; Hudson Institute, Conflict and Persecution in Nigeria: The Case for a CPC Designation, 12 March 2025, url; Catholic Register (The), Nigeria's government complicit in Christian slaughter, priest says, 27 June 2025, url

    ↩︎

  689. ORFA, How Fulani Militias Became Nigeria’s Deadliest GroupWhile Escaping Global Notice, 14 July 2025, url; Hudson Institute, Conflict and Persecution in Nigeria: The Case for a CPC Designation, 12 March 2025, url; Catholic Register (The), Nigeria's government complicit in Christian slaughter, priest says, 27 June 2025, url

    ↩︎

  690. On 11 December 2020, the International Criminal Court had indicated that ‘Boko Haram and its splinter groups have committed the following acts constituting crimes against humanity and war crimes: murder; rape, sexual slavery, including forced pregnancy and forced marriage; enslavement; torture; cruel treatment; outrages upon personal dignity; taking of hostages; intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities; intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance; intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to education and to places of worship and similar institutions; conscripting and enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into armed groups and using them to participate actively in hostilities; persecution on gender and religious grounds; and other inhumane acts’. ICC, Statement of the Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on the conclusion of the preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria, 11 December 2020, url

    ↩︎

  691. ORFA, Countering the myth of religious indifference in Nigerian terror (10/2019 – 9/2023), 29 August 2024, url, pp. 6-7. See also: ICC, 9 Killed in Attacks on Nigeria’s Christian Farming Communities, 6 August 2025, url

    ↩︎

  692. Pulse, Christians not targeted for killings in Nigeria - FG replies US, 15 March 2025, url; Leadership, Federal Gov’t Dismisses Targeted Persecution Of Nigerian Christians, 12 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  693. Pulse, FG tackles US over claims of Christian persecution by 2 Nigerian Catholic priests, 13 April 2025, url. See also: Leadership, Federal Gov’t Dismisses Targeted Persecution Of Nigerian Christians, 12 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  694. ORFA, How Fulani Militias Became Nigeria’s Deadliest Group While Escaping Global Notice, 14 July 2025, url

    ↩︎

  695. Intersociety, Nigeria Headquartering 22 Islamic Terror Groups in Africa Seeking to Obliterate Christianity And Indigenous Cultural Heritage, August 2025, url, pp. 2, 3

    ↩︎

  696. Hudson Institute, Conflict and Persecution in Nigeria: The Case for a CPC Designation, 12 March 2025, url; Catholic Register (The), Nigeria's government complicit in Christian slaughter, priest says, 27 June 2025, url

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  697. Open Doors, World Watch List 2025: Nigeria, 2025, url

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  698. ICC, 9 Killed in Attacks on Nigeria’s Christian Farming Communities, 6 August 2025, url

    ↩︎

  699. Pew Research Center, How the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2020, 9 June 2025, url, pp. 49, 56, 113, 193

    ↩︎

  700. Amnesty International, The State of the World's Human Rights, Nigeria 2024, 29 April 2025, url; FT, Nigeria’s spiralling rural violence heaps pressure on president, 27 April 2025, url

    ↩︎

  701. This Day, Bauchi Gov Pays Condolence Visit To Victims of Bandits’ Attack, Donates N100m, 17 May 2025, url ; SBM Intelligence, A threat to national stability, 27 March 2025, url, pp. 18-19, 32

    ↩︎

  702. Nigerian senior security advisor, online interview with EUAA, 30 July 2025

    ↩︎

  703. Nigerian senior security advisor, online interview with EUAA, 30 July 2025

    ↩︎

  704. A ‘Sharia panel’ is not a court but an ‘arbitration committee’ that handles civil matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and disputes over contractual agreements between Muslims. Vanguard, Sharia row rages in South-West as supporters expand scope of demand from panel to court, 12 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  705. The Guardian, Sultan backs Sharia law in Oyo, Ekiti, 30 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  706. West Africa Weekly, Explainer: Sharia Expansion in South-West Nigeria – Should Citizens be Concerned?, 27 January 2025, url; Daily Trust, Why Sharia panels are generating controversy in South-West, 27 January 2025, url

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  707. Vanguard, Sharia row rages in South-West as supporters expand scope of demand from panel to court, 12 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  708. Vanguard, Sharia row rages in South-West as supporters expand scope of demand from panel to court, 12 January 2025, url; Nigerian Tribune, EXPLAINER: ‘No religious group can create Sharia Court in South-West’, 30 December 2024, url

    ↩︎

  709. Daily Trust, Sharia panels: Discrimination against southern Muslims worries NSCIA, 30 January 2025, url

    ↩︎

  710. Punch, Imo chief imam: Igbo Muslims battling discrimination in south-east — nobody wants to marry us, 23 March 2024, url

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  711. Punch, Imo chief imam: Igbo Muslims battling discrimination in south-east — nobody wants to marry us, 23 March 2024, url

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  712. Punch, Imo chief imam: Igbo Muslims battling discrimination in south-east — nobody wants to marry us, 23 March 2024, url

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  713. International Crisis Group, Crisis Watch – Nigeria: January 2024 – August 2025, n.d., url; AA, Nigerian army kills 60 Boko Haram terrorists after repelling attack on military base, 30 May 2025, url; AA, Nigerian military says it killed 16 Boko Haram terrorists in northeastern Borno state, 24 May 2025, url

    ↩︎

  714. Al Jazeera, Nigeria says troops kill dozens of gunmen in northwest and northeast, 10 July 2025, url; SARI Global, Weekly Update: Nigeria (July 4 - 10, 2025), 11 July 2025, url, p. 3

    ↩︎

  715. AI, Nigeria: Amnesty International petitions ICC judges to end Prosecutor’s delaying of justice for atrocity crimes, 2 December 2024, url

    ↩︎

  716. Okoye I. and Adejoh P., Human Rights Violations in Counter-Terrorism Efforts: A Qualitative Study of Victims Experiences in Nigeria, 13 March 2025, url, pp. 78, 13-17

    ↩︎

  717. AI, Nigeria: Amnesty International petitions ICC judges to end Prosecutor’s delaying of justice for atrocity crimes, 2 December 2024, url

    ↩︎

  718. In 2020, Amnesty International reported that since 2011, over 10 000 civilians have died in military custody, many at Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, due to overcrowding, poor sanitation, lack of food, water, and medical care. The organisation noted that even elderly civilians fleeing Boko Haram-controlled areas have been unlawfully detained or killed without evidence of involvement in violence. AI, Nigeria: Older people often an invisible casualty in conflict with Boko Haram, 8 December 2020, url

    ↩︎

  719. AI, Nigeria: Amnesty International petitions ICC judges to end Prosecutor’s delaying of justice for atrocity crimes, 2 December 2024, url; AI, Nigeria: Submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC), 2 December 2024, url

    ↩︎

  720. UN, Security Council, Report of the Secretary-General on Children and armed conflict in Nigeria, 17 July 2024, url , paras. 19, 20, 23

    ↩︎

  721. Ladue, M. et al., Child-Inclusive and Gender-Responsive Reintegration Programmes, June 2025, url, pp. 37, 75

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  722. UNIDIR, Climate, Insecurity and Displacement: Triple Barriers to the Reintegration of Former Boko Haram Associates, March 2025, url, pp. 2, 23

    ↩︎

  723. AI, “Help Us Build Our Lives”: Girl Survivors of Boko Haram and Military Abuses in North-East Nigeria, 9 June 2024, url, pp. 7-12

    ↩︎

  724. Africa Report, Nigerian cult mafia groups and how they wreak havoc on society, 28 February 2025, url; SBM Intel, Gangstar’s Paradise. Nigeria’s restive youth gang crisis, 2020-2025, July 2025, url, pp. 3, 4, 12, 14; Guardian (The), Bayelsa community live in fear as cult war intensifies. 23 January 2025, url

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  725. SBM Intel, Gangstar’s Paradise. Nigeria’s restive youth gang crisis, 2020-2025, July 2025, url, pp. 3, 4, 12, 14

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  726. Nigeria Watch, Fourteenth Report on Violence 2024, url, p. 8

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  727. SBM Intel, Gangstar’s Paradise. Nigeria’s restive youth gang crisis, 2020-2025, July 2025, url, pp. 3, 4, 12, 14

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  728. SBM Intel, Gangstar’s Paradise. Nigeria’s restive youth gang crisis, 2020-2025, July 2025, url, pp. 3, 4, 12, 14

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  729. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, Black Axe—Nigeria’s Most Notorious Transnational Criminal Organization, 29 October 2024, url

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  730. Odesanmi A. F, et al., Sociocultural Perspective of Cultism in Nigeria: A Social Vulture of Individuals and Societies, October 2024, url, pp. 158, 175

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  731. Africa Report (The), Nigerian cult mafia groups and how they wreak havoc on society, 28 February 2025, url

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  732. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, Black Axe—Nigeria’s Most Notorious Transnational Criminal Organization, 29 October 2024, url

    ↩︎

  733. Nation (The), Teen killers on the prowl: Tragic rise of Nigeria’s child cultists, 8 September 2024, url; Punch, Rise of child cultists turning schools into battlefields (2), 16 February 2025, url. In 2021, the death of a 12-year-old student at a Lagos school, allegedly tortured by senior students for refusing to join a cult group, reignited discussions about the spread of cultism in secondary schools. See Punch, Rise of child cultists turning schools into battlefields (2), 16 February 2025, url

    ↩︎

  734. Daily Trust, Cultists having a field day in Kwara, 22 June 2024, url

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  735. Punch, Rise of child cultists turning schools into battlefields (2), 16 February 2025, url

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  736. Punch, 10 most powerful Kings in Nigeria and their titles, 6 March 2025, url

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  737. Premium Times, Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, installs new chiefs, 9 June 2025, url; Nigeria, Osun State Government, Osun Govt Approves new king of Olojudo of Ido Ajegunle and Five Others, Elevates Seven to Part Two Chiefs, 29 January 2025, url; Vanguard, Agadangba Kingdom honours Dorsey as Yeye Oge, 26 July 2025, url

    ↩︎

  738. Punch, Chimamanda’s chieftaincy title signifies cultural revolution, 23 January 2023, url

    ↩︎

  739. NAN, First Lady receives chieftaincy title in Lagos, pledges continued service, August 2025, url

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  740. LawPavilion, Chieftaincy Declaration Can Be Set Aside, 6 August 2024, url

    ↩︎

  741. Canada, IRB, Nigeria: Chieftaincy in Yorubaland and rituals, including human sacrifice and blood rituals upon initiation to chieftaincy or during chieftaincy; reaction of state ministries of chieftaincy affairs to Yoruba chief rituals, including whether reaction varies by state; prevalence and consequences of refusing a Yoruba chieftaincy title; protection available to those who refuse such a title (2019–October 2021), 12 November 2021, url↩︎

  742. Canada, IRB, Nigeria: Consequences for a person refusing a chief priest or a shaman [also called fetish priest] title for which they have been selected in south and central Nigeria; state protection (2019–October 2021) [NGA200792.FE ], 12 November 2021, url

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  743. Itua, P. O., Succession Under Customary Law in Nigeria. The Rule of Primogeniture versus the Deposition of a Traditional Ruler (Onojie) in Edo State: A critique of the Provisions of the Traditional Rulers and Chiefs Edicts No 16 of 1979, 25 September 2019, url, pp. 20, 50

    ↩︎

  744. David Pratten is an Associate Professor in the Social Anthropology of Africa at University of Oxford. His research is based on a long-term engagement with Annang villagers in south-eastern Nigeria and focuses on themes of history, violence and the state. The focus of his initial work was an historical ethnography of colonialism which focused on the events surrounding a series of mysterious deaths in south-eastern Nigeria during the late 1940s. More recently his research has examined issues of youth, democracy and disorder in post-colonial Nigeria with a particular focus on vigilantism and new masquerade performances.

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  745. Pratten D., email communication with EUAA, 29 July 2025

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  746. Pratten D., email communication with EUAA, 29 July 2025

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  747. Pratten D., email communication with EUAA, 29 July 2025

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  748. Nation (The), Why I don’t take chieftaincy titles – Makinde, 1 June 2025, url

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  749. Authority (The), Why I rejected chieftaincy title – Ozigbo, 7 October 2023, url

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  750. Authority (The), Why I rejected chieftaincy title – Ozigbo, 7 October 2023, url; Nation (The), Why I don’t take chieftaincy titles – Makinde, 1 June 2025, url

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  751. Nigeria, Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018, 21 January 2019, url

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  752. HRW, Nigeria Passes Disability Rights Law, 25 January 2019, url

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  753. Premium Times, INVESTIGATION: Nigerians with disabilities experience discrimination despite existing laws, 3 April 2024, url; Global Disability Fund, Situational Analysis on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria, Country Brief, July 2025, url, p. 7

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  754. Global Disability Fund, Situational Analysis on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria, Country Brief, July 2025, url, p. 3; Dialogue Earth, In northern Nigeria, floods impact disabled people most, 19 February 2025, url

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  755. Ofuani-Sokolo, A. I. and Monye, O., Engendering financial inclusion for persons with disabilities in Nigeria, March 2025, url, p. 119, 125; Cable (The), Mohammed Isa seeks inclusive programmes for PWDs in rural areas, 11 April 2025, url

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  756. DRC, How DRC supports Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria to reclaim their rights and dignity, 12 March 2025, url

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  757. Global Disability Fund, Situational Analysis on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria, Country Full Report, May 2025, url, pp. 48-49;

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  758. Nigeria Health Watch, Nigeria’s Health System Must Eliminate Obstacles to Maternal Care for Women with Disabilities, 17 March 2025, url; Global Disability Fund, Situational Analysis on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria, Country Full Report, May 2025, url, pp. 49-50

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  759. Edugist, The Forgotten Girls: Addressing the Educational Needs of Girls with Disabilities in Nigeria, 23 October 2024, url; Inclusive News Network, 61% of women and girls with disabilities in Nigeria lack basic computer skills, 18 October 2024, url

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  760. Centre for Disability and Inclusion Africa, Gender-based violence against women with disabilities in Nigeria, 13 February 2024, url; Global Disability Fund, Situational Analysis on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria, Country Full Report, May 2025, url, pp. 49-50

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  761. Global Disability Fund, Situational Analysis on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria, Country Full Report, May 2025, url, pp. 49-50

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  762. Nigeria, National Mental Health, 30 December 2022, url

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  763. HRW, World Report 2024 – Nigeria, 11 January 2024, url; Adepoju, V. A., Breaking the Chains: Nigeria’s New Mental Health Law and its Impacts on Care and Rights, 11 May 2023, url↩︎

  764. Premium Times, Buhari signs mental health bill after two failed attempts, 11 January 2023, url; HRW, World Report 2024 - Nigeria, 11 January 2024, url

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  765. HRW, World Report 2024 - Nigeria, 11 January 2024, url

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  766. Center for Policy Impact in Global Health (The), Exploring common mental health problems among Nigerian adolescents: identified challenges and recommendations for the future, 3 September 2024, url; Nweke, S. C. et al., Problems and critical reforms in mental health care: an examination of Nigeria’s situation, November 2024, url

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  767. Nweke, S. C. et al., Problems and critical reforms in mental health care: an examination of Nigeria’s situation, November 2024, url; Medical Research Foundation, Urgent action needed to address migration of psychiatrists out of Nigeria, 10 June 2024, url

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  768. Omaiboje M., email communication with EUAA, 8 July 2025

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  769. Chijioke, O. C. et al., Barriers and Attitudes towards Mental Health Services in Nigeria: A Systematic Review, 15 July 2024, url, p. 12; Premium Times, Less than 200 psychiatrists attend to all Nigerians, 28 November 2024, url

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  770. Medical Research Foundation, Urgent action needed to address migration of psychiatrists out of Nigeria, 10 June 2024, url

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  771. Chijioke, O. C. et al., Barriers and Attitudes towards Mental Health Services in Nigeria: A Systematic Review, 15 July 2024, url, p. 12

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  772. BMJ Global Health, Mind the widening gap: A trauma-driven mental health crisis in Nigeria, 26 May 2024, url

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  773. She Writes Woman is a Nigerian women-led movement that challenges stigma, advocates for rights, and creates safe support for people with mental health conditions. See She Writes Woman, Nothing About Us Without Us, n.d., url

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  774. Nation (The), Nigeria’s youth mental health crisis in numbers, 11 July 2025, url

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  775. BMJ Global Health, Mind the widening gap: A trauma-driven mental health crisis in Nigeria, 26 May 2024, url

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  776. Chijioke, O. C. et al., Barriers and Attitudes towards Mental Health Services in Nigeria: A Systematic Review, 15 July 2024, url, p. 15; IACAPAP, Bulletin, June 2025, url, p.32

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  777. AI, Nigeria: Escalation of Mob Violence Emboldens Impunity, 29 October 2024, url

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  778. AfAW, About, 21 June 2024, url

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  779. This Day, Mental Health, Witchcraft and Demonic Possession, 12 October 2024, url

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  780. Ogbonna, C. K. et al., Addressing stigma to achieve healthcare equity and universal health coverage in Nigeria, 11 October 2024, url

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  781. Adeyinka S., online interview with EUAA, 16 July 2025

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  782. Nigeria, Criminal Code Act, 1 June 1916, url

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  783. Nigeria, Act No. 25 of 1960, Penal Code (Northern State) Federal Provisions Act, 30 December 1960, url

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  784. 247ureports, Witchcraft Law and Jurisprudence in Anambra State by Mr. Enemuo CC, Esq., 3 March 2025, url

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  785. Sun (The), Alkassim backs Bauchi Chief Judge, says Nigerian laws recognise witchcraft, 4 March 2025, url

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  786. AfAW, About, 21 June 2024, url; Humanists International, Leo Igwe, 6 December 2024, url

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  787. Modern Ghana, Is Witchcraft Justiciable Under Nigerian Law?, 18 April 2025, url

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  788. AI, Instantly killed! How law enforcement failures exacerbate Nigeria's wave of mob violence, October 2024, url, p. 13

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  789. AI, Nigeria: Escalation of mob violence emboldens impunity, 28 October 2024, url

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  790. AI, Instantly killed! How law enforcement failures exacerbate Nigeria's wave of mob violence, October 2024, url, p. 26

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  791. Punch, Echoes of village widows lynched over witchcraft allegation, 30 November 2024, url; Nation (The), Witch-hunt of widows, 13 December 2024, url

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  792. UN, Security Council, Protection of civilians in armed conflict; Report of the Secretary-General [S/2024/385], 14 May 2024, url, p. 8

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  793. Guardian (The), The ‘epilepsy warriors’ breaking down the barriers in Cameroon, 3 April 2024, url; IPS, Epilepsy Patients in Africa Fight Stigma and Neglect, 19 March 2025, url

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  794. IPS, Epilepsy Patients in Africa Fight Stigma and Neglect, 19 March 2025, url

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  795. Daily Trust, How We Were Forced To Confess To Witchcraft – Victims, 22 March 2025, url

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  796. Punch, Echoes of village widows lynched over witchcraft allegations, 30 November 2024, url

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  797. BBC News, The man battling Nigeria’s 'witch-hunters', 26 October 2024, url

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  798. HumAngle, Separating Fact from Fiction In Nigeria’s Genital Theft Frenzy, 2 January 2024, url; BBC News, The man battling Nigeria’s 'witch-hunters', 26 October 2024, url

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  799. Punch, Echoes of village widows lynched over witchcraft allegations, 30 November 2024, url

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  800. BBC News, The man battling Nigeria’s 'witch-hunters', 26 October 2024, url; Nation (The), Imo’s ‘That witch must die’ event, 19 August 2024, url

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  801. BBC News, The man battling Nigeria’s 'witch-hunters', 26 October 2024, url

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  862. Amnesty International, Nigeria: Thousands killed, hundreds forcibly disappeared in two years in South-East region, 13 August 2025, url; Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025– Nigeria, 2025, url

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  863. The survey was carried out by the CLEEN Foundation and consisted of the interview of 1 658 workers in the criminal justice system, including the police, judiciary, and correctional services, in Edo, Delta, Bauchi, Sokoto, Katsina, Jigawa, Kwara, and Cross River states. Premium Times, Study highlights inadequate compliance with Nigeria’s criminal justice act, 13 December 2024, url. CLEEN Foundation is an NGO that promotes public safety, security and accessible justice through research, legislative advocacy, and publications, in partnership with government, civil society and the private sector. CLEEN Foundation, Overview, n.d., url

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  901. World Bank (The), Building Momentum for Inclusive Growth, May 2025, url, p. 7; AP, Nigeria’s independence anniversary is marked by protests and frustration over economic hardship, 1 October 2024, url

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  903. Nigeria, Lagos, Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Lagos Economic Development Update (LEDU) 2025, 2025, url, p. 19

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  904. Nigeria, Lagos, Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Lagos Economic Development Update (LEDU) 2025, 2025, url, pp. ix-x

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  905. Nigeria, Lagos, Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Lagos Economic Development Update (LEDU) 2025, 2025, url, pp. 14-15

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  907. US, CIA, The World Factbook: Nigeria, 12 August 2025, url

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  909. Germany, BMZ, Economic situation: High dependency on oil, 2 February 2024, url; World Bank (The), Building Momentum for Inclusive Growth, May 2025, url, p. ix

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  911. Lloyds Bank, Nigeria: Economic and Political Overview, May 2025, url

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  913. ILO, ILO Brief: Navigating Nigeria’s economic and labour market challenges: Pathways to inclusive growth and structural transformation, November 2024, url, p. 3

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  915. World Bank (The), Building Momentum for Inclusive Growth, May 2025, url, p. 31; US, CIA, The World Factbook: Nigeria, 12 August 2025, url

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  917. US, CIA, The World Factbook: Nigeria, 12 August 2025, url

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  918. The survey was conducted between July 2023 and March 2024 and had a sample of 4 715 households nationally. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024): Tracking Nigerian Households to Understand Their Resilience Over Time, 2024, url, p. xi

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  919. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 23

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  920. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 23

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  924. World Bank (The), Building Momentum for Inclusive Growth, May 2025, url, p. 31

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  925. Daily Trust, Inside Nigeria’s Dormant Railway Networks, 14 January 2024, url. See also: US, CIA, The World Factbook: Nigeria, 12 August 2025, url

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  926. Daily Trust, Inside Nigeria’s Dormant Railway Networks, 14 January 2024, url

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  927. Business Day, Five rail transport projects that can shape Nigeria’s economy, 24 March 2025, url

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  928. Business Day, Five rail transport projects that can shape Nigeria’s economy, 24 March 2025, url

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  929. The ‘Domestic airports’ webpage indicates that there are 16 ‘domestic airports’; however, 4 out of the 16 airports are domestic terminals in the international airports of Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt. Nigeria, FAAN, Domestic Airports, n.d., url

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  930. Nigeria, FAAN, Our Airports, n.d., url

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  931. US, CIA, The World Factbook: Nigeria, 12 August 2025, url

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  932. PwC, 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook, 2025, url, p. 68

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  933. Nigeria, Lagos, Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Lagos Economic Development Update (LEDU) 2025, 2025, url, p. 75

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  934. Population figures are based on estimates and projections from World Population Prospects 2024 and Model-based Estimates and Projections of Family Planning Indicators 2024 (UNFPA, Population Division). See UNFPA, State of the World Population Report 2025 ‘The Real Fertility Crisis: The pursuit of reproductive agency in a changing world’, 16 June 2025, url, pp. 139, 142

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  935. Nigeria, Federal Government of Nigeria and UNICEF, The State of Nigeria’s Children: Summary of the 2024 Situation Analysis of Children and Adolescents in Nigeria, 2025, url, pp. 4-10

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  936. In World Bank (The), Nigeria: Featured indicators, n.d., url

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  937. World Bank (The), The World Bank in Nigeria: Overview, 10 April 2025, url; Germany, BMZ, Nigeria – Social situation: Pervasive poverty and corruption, 2 February 2024, url

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  939. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 4

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  940. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 7

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  941. The Jobberman report defined ‘informality’ as ‘all economic activities (excluding illicit activities) by workers and economic units that are in law or practice not covered or insufficiently covered by formal institutional arrangements. Conventional views use the term ‘informal sector’ to describe a group of industries and occupations characterised by the absence of, or noncompliance to, regulatory frameworks that make jobs, enterprises and workers visible to the state’. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 22

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  942. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 2. See also: ILO, ILO Brief: Navigating Nigeria’s economic and labour market challenges: Pathways to inclusive growth and structural transformation, November 2024, url, p. 1

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  943. WEF, Global Gender Gap Report 2025: Nigeria, Economic profiles, 11 June 2025, url

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  944. ILO, ILO Brief: Navigating Nigeria’s economic and labour market challenges: Pathways to inclusive growth and structural transformation, November 2024, url, p. 1

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  945. US, CIA, The World Factbook: Nigeria, 12 August 2025, url

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  946. Lloyds Bank, Nigeria: Economic and Political Overview, May 2025, url

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  947. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 61

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  948. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 61

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  949. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 2

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  950. ILO, ILO Brief: Navigating Nigeria’s economic and labour market challenges: Pathways to inclusive growth and structural transformation, November 2024, url, p. 1

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  951. Germany, BMZ, Nigeria, Improving training and employment opportunities, 2 February 2024, url

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  952. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 37

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  953. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 37

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  954. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 61

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  955. Reuters, Nigerian lawmakers pass minimum wage bill, ending labour dispute, 23 July 2024, url; AP, Nigeria more than doubles the minimum wage for government workers after strikes and negotiations, 19 July 2024, url

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  956. PwC, 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook, 2025, url, p. 45

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  957. World Bank (The), Building Momentum for Inclusive Growth, May 2025, url, p. 6

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  958. Germany, BMZ, Nigeria, Improving training and employment opportunities, 2 February 2024, url; Business Day, Widening skills gap keeps millions of Nigerians jobless, 19 March 2025, url

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  959. Germany, BMZ, Nigeria, Improving training and employment opportunities, 2 February 2024, url

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  960. Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020-2030), 2020, url, p. 7

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  961. Business Day, Widening skills gap keeps millions of Nigerians jobless, 19 March 2025, url

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  962. Business Day, Widening skills gap keeps millions of Nigerians jobless, 19 March 2025, url

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  963. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, pp. 56-57

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  964. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 59

    ↩︎

  965. The Jobberman report defined ‘informality’ as ‘all economic activities (excluding illicit activities) by workers and economic units that are in law or practice not covered or insufficiently covered by formal institutional arrangements. Conventional views use the term ‘informal sector’ to describe a group of industries and occupations characterised by the absence of, or noncompliance to, regulatory frameworks that make jobs, enterprises and workers visible to the state’. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 22

    ↩︎

  966. ILO, ILO Brief: Navigating Nigeria’s economic and labour market challenges: Pathways to inclusive growth and structural transformation, November 2024, url, p. 1; Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q 2024, November 2024, url, p. 2

    ↩︎

  967. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 2. See also: ILO, ILO Brief: Navigating Nigeria’s economic and labour market challenges: Pathways to inclusive growth and structural transformation, November 2024, url, p. 1

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  968. Business Day, Jobless rate rises on multinationals’ exit, factory closures, 25 September 2024, url

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  969. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 10. See also: ILO, ILO Brief: Navigating Nigeria’s economic and labour market challenges: Pathways to inclusive growth and structural transformation, November 2024, url, p. 1

    ↩︎

  970. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 11. See also: Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 45

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  971. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 11

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  972. Business Day, Widening skills gap keeps millions of Nigerians jobless, 19 March 2025, url

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  973. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 36

    ↩︎

  974. The Jobberman report defines ’survivalist workers and enterprises’ as ‘the most vulnerable segment of the

    informal labour force based on social indicators like poverty, access to education and skills, and available opportunities. Survivalist workers are prone to the most precarious and discriminatory forms of employment. They engage in long hours of laborious work with discriminatory payment systems in hazardous working conditions, usually public spaces’. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, pp. 22, 25

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  975. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 25

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  976. Cable (The), EXPLAINER: The new NBS methodology behind Nigeria’s 4.1% unemployment figure, 26 August 2023, url; African Business, Nigeria’s revamp of economic indicators sparks debate, 13 February 2025, url

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  977. US, CIA, The World Factbook: Nigeria, 12 August 2025, url; World Bank (The), Human Capital, Country Brieg: Nigeria, October 2024, url; Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 2

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  978. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 2

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  979. WEF, Global Gender Gap Report 2025: Nigeria, Economic profiles, 11 June 2025, url

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  980. Cable (The), EXPLAINER: The new NBS methodology behind Nigeria’s 4.1% unemployment figure, 26 August 2023, url; African Business, Nigeria’s revamp of economic indicators sparks debate, 13 February 2025, url

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  981. Business Day, Jobless rate rises on multinationals’ exit, factory closures, 25 September 2024, url

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  982. Business Day, Jobless rate rises on multinationals’ exit, factory closures, 25 September 2024, url

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  983. African Liberty, Nigeria in Crisis Due to Youth Unemployment, 11 December 204, url; Vanguard, Youth unemployment: Reps move to establish vocational centres in 774 LGAs, 27 June 2025, url

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  984. Business Day, Widening skills gap keeps millions of Nigerians jobless, 19 March 2025, url; African Liberty, Nigeria in Crisis Due to Youth Unemployment, 11 December 2024, url

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  985. Business Day, Widening skills gap keeps millions of Nigerians jobless, 19 March 2025, url; African Liberty, Nigeria in Crisis Due to Youth Unemployment, 11 December 2024, url

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  986. World Bank (The), Human Capital, Country Brieg: Nigeria, October 2024, url

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  987. US, CIA, The World Factbook: Nigeria, 12 August 2025, url

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  988. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 12

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  989. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 2

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  990. Daily Trust, Bridging the Gap: Why Nigeria Needs Skills-Based Education for Its Youth, 27 June 2025, url

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  991. Germany, BMZ, Nigeria – Social situation: Pervasive poverty and corruption, 2 February 2024, url

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  992. Business Day, Nigeria’s youth face skills gap as employers struggle to fill roles, 27 June 2025, url; Daily Trust, Bridging the Gap: Why Nigeria Needs Skills-Based Education for Its Youth, 27 June 2025, url

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  993. Daily Trust, Bridging the Gap: Why Nigeria Needs Skills-Based Education for Its Youth, 27 June 2025, url

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  994. Business Day, Nigeria’s youth face skills gap as employers struggle to fill roles, 27 June 2025, url; Daily Trust, Bridging the Gap: Why Nigeria Needs Skills-Based Education for Its Youth, 27 June 2025, url

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  995. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 62

    ↩︎

  996. The World Bank defined ‘vulnerable employment’ as the ‘least likely to have formal work arrangements, social protection, and safety nets to guard against economic shocks; thus [being] more likely to fall into poverty’. In World Bank (The), Nigeria: Featured indicators, n.d., url

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  997. World Bank (The), Nigeria: Featured indicators, n.d., url

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  998. McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2025: India, Nigeria, and Kenya, 2025, url, p. 34

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  999. McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2025: India, Nigeria, and Kenya, 2025, url, p. 34

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  1000. McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2025: India, Nigeria, and Kenya, 2025, url, p. 38

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  1001. Nigeria, Lagos, Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Lagos Economic Development Update (LEDU) 2025, 2025, url, p. 79

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  1002. Nigeria, Lagos, Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Lagos Economic Development Update (LEDU) 2025, 2025, url, p. 79

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  1003. Borgen Project (The), Urban poverty in Nigeria: Addressing the plight of the poor, 28 April 2024, url

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  1004. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) Report, Q2 2024, November 2024, url, p. 4

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  1005. WEF, Global Gender Gap Report 2025: Nigeria, Economic profiles, 11 June 2025, url

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  1006. Business Day, Widening skills gap keeps millions of Nigerians jobless, 19 March 2025, url

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  1007. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 35

    ↩︎

  1008. Nigeria, Lagos, Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Lagos Economic Development Update (LEDU) 2025, 2025, url, p. 64

    ↩︎

  1009. Labour force participation rate is ‘the proportion of a country’s working-age population that engages actively in the labour market, either by working or looking for work. It indicates the size of the supply of labour available to engage in the production of goods and services relative to the working-age population. It is defined as the ratio of the labour force to the working-age population expressed in percentage terms’. Nigeria, Nigeria Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2023, 2024, url, p. 13

    ↩︎

  1010. The time-related underemployment rate is defined as ‘the share of employed people who are working less than 40 hours per week, but who would be willing and available to do more hours of work’. Nigeria, Nigeria Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2023, 2024, url, p. 32

    ↩︎

  1011. AP, Nigeria more than doubles the minimum wage for government workers after strikes and negotiations, 19 July 2024, url; Germany, BMZ, Nigeria – Social situation: Pervasive poverty and corruption, 2 February 2024, url

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  1012. World Bank (The), Building Momentum for Inclusive Growth, May 2025, url, p. 6; Lloyds Bank, Nigeria: Economic and Political Overview, May 2025, url

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  1013. EEAS, 2024 Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World, 22 May 2025, url, p. 127

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  1014. PwC, 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook, 2025, url, p. 43

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  1015. Germany, BMZ, Nigeria – Social situation: Pervasive poverty and corruption, 2 February 2024, url

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  1016. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index (2022), 2023, url, p. 23

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  1017. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 23

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  1018. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index (2022), 2023, url, p. xiv

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  1019. World Bank (The), The World Bank in Nigeria: Overview, 10 April 2025, url; BASIC Research, Poverty Dynamics and Social Assistance Amidst Intersecting Crises in Nigeria, February 2025, url, p. 9

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  1020. BASIC Research, Poverty Dynamics and Social Assistance Amidst Intersecting Crises in Nigeria, February 2025, url, p. 9

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  1021. Borgen Project (The), Urban poverty in Nigeria: Addressing the plight of the poor, 28 April 2024, url

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  1022. PwC, 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook, 2025, url, p. 59

    ↩︎

  1023. World Bank (The), The World Bank in Nigeria: Overview, 10 April 2025, url; Nigeria, High Commission to the United Kingdom, Economy, n.d., url

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  1024. World Bank (The), Building Momentum for Inclusive Growth, May 2025, url, p. 6

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  1025. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 50

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  1026. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 50

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  1027. BASIC Research, Poverty Dynamics and Social Assistance Amidst Intersecting Crises in Nigeria, February 2025, url, p. 30

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  1028. BASIC Research, Poverty Dynamics and Social Assistance Amidst Intersecting Crises in Nigeria, February 2025, url, p. 30

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  1029. Punch, Nigeria now reaching stability, after fuel subsidy removal — Minister, 13 June 2025, url

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  1030. Oxfam, Income and wealth inequality in Nigeria: Trends and drivers, 15 October 2024, url, p. 11

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  1031. World Inequality Database, Nigeria: Income inequality, 2023, url

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  1032. World Inequality Database, Nigeria: Income inequality, 2023, url

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  1033. Oxfam, Income and wealth inequality in Nigeria: Trends and drivers, 15 October 2024, url, pp. 53-69

    ↩︎

  1034. Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Nigeria’s Fight to #EndBadGovernance, 26 August 2024, url; AP, Nigeria’s independence anniversary is marked by protests and frustration over economic hardship, 1 October 2024, url

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  1035. Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Nigeria’s Fight to #EndBadGovernance, 26 August 2024, url

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  1036. AP, Nigeria’s independence anniversary is marked by protests and frustration over economic hardship, 1 October 2024, url

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  1037. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index (2022), 2023, url, p. xvi

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  1038. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index (2022), 2023, url, p. 21

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  1039. Oxfam, Income and wealth inequality in Nigeria: Trends and drivers, 15 October 2024, url, p. 27

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  1040. World Inequality Database, Nigeria: Income inequality, 2023, url

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  1041. World Bank (The), Nigeria: Featured indicators, n.d., url

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  1042. The study was based on quantitative and qualitative data collected between July and September 2023 across six states in the six regional zones. BASE Research, Poverty Dynamics and Social Assistance Amidst Intersecting Crises in Nigeria, February 2025, url, p. 4

    ↩︎

  1043. BASE Research, Poverty Dynamics and Social Assistance Amidst Intersecting Crises in Nigeria, February 2025, url, pp. 28-29

    ↩︎

  1044. BASE Research, Poverty Dynamics and Social Assistance Amidst Intersecting Crises in Nigeria, February 2025, url, p. 28. See also: UNFPA, The Real Fertility Crisis: The pursuit of reproductive agency in a changing world, 16 June 2025, url, p. 91

    ↩︎

  1045. BASE Research, Poverty Dynamics and Social Assistance Amidst Intersecting Crises in Nigeria, February 2025, url, p. 28

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  1046. World Bank (The), The World Bank in Nigeria: Overview, 10 April 2025, url

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  1047. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index (2022), 2023, url, p. 24

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  1048. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index (2022), 2023, url, p. 101

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  1049. Germany, BMZ, Nigeria – Social situation: Pervasive poverty and corruption, 2 February 2024, url

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  1050. Oxfam, Income and wealth inequality in Nigeria: Trends and drivers, 15 October 2024, url, p. 22. See also: Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index (2022), 2023, url, p. xiv

    ↩︎

  1051. Oxfam, Income and wealth inequality in Nigeria: Trends and drivers, 15 October 2024, url, p. 22

    ↩︎

  1052. ‘Net wealth represents the total value of an individual's or household's assets minus their liabilities (debts).’ See Oxfam, Income and wealth inequality in Nigeria: Trends and drivers, 15 October 2024, url, p. 28

    ↩︎

  1053. Oxfam, Income and wealth inequality in Nigeria: Trends and drivers, 15 October 2024, url, p. 28

    ↩︎

  1054. Oxfam, Income and wealth inequality in Nigeria: Trends and drivers, 15 October 2024, url, p. 66

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  1055. The report is based on a survey of 400 inhabitants in five Lagos’ slums: Makoko, Iwaya, Ilaje, Ijora Badia and Amukoko. Conversation (The), Poverty in Lagos isn’t just about money – here’s why, 21 October 2024, url

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  1056. Conversation (The), Poverty in Lagos isn’t just about money – here’s why, 21 October 2024, url

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  1057. Conversation (The), Poverty in Lagos isn’t just about money – here’s why, 21 October 2024, url

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  1058. Borgen Project (The), Urbanization in Lagos: Impacting poverty in Nigeria, 9 May 2024, url

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  1059. Conversation (The), Poverty in Lagos isn’t just about money – here’s why, 21 October 2024, url

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  1060. Borgen Project (The), The divide between wealth and poverty in Abuja, 27 June 2025, url

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  1061. Borgen Project (The), The divide between wealth and poverty in Abuja, 27 June 2025, url

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  1062. Daily Trust, Weak and vulnerable: A disturbing oversight in FCT governance, 28 May 2025, url; Guardian (The), Poverty amid plenty: Growing nation of destitute as homeless kids invade Abuja, S’West, 7 June 2024, url

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  1063. Daily Trust, Out-of-school girls in Abuja: Lost dream of education and the burden of survival, 25 October 2024, url

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  1064. Germany, BMZ, Nigeria – Social situation: Pervasive poverty and corruption, 2 February 2024, url

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  1065. GHI, Nigeria, n.d., url

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  1066. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 42

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  1067. The survey took place between 22 July and 2 August 2024 and had a sample of 608 respondents between the ages of 16 and 35 in Lagos (196 residents), Auchi (206), and Benin (206). Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, pp. 3, 15

    ↩︎

  1068. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, pp. 6, 11

    ↩︎

  1069. WFP defines ‘acute food insecurity’ as the inability of a person ‘to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger’. WFP, Global Report on Food Crises: acute hunger remains persistently high in 59 countries with 1-in-5 people assessed in need of critical urgent action, 24 April 2024, url

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  1070. WFP and FAO, Hunger Hotspots. FAO–WFP early warnings on acute food insecurity: June to October 2025 outlook, 2025, url, p. 9

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  1071. HRW, Rising Food Prices Deepen Nigeria’s Poverty Crisis, 15 May 2025, url

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  1072. Conversation (The), Nigeria’s economy in 2025 doesn’t look bright – analyst explains why, 6 January 2025, url

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  1073. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, pp. 12-13

    ↩︎

  1074. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, pp. 12-13

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  1075. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, p. 13

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  1076. SBM Intelligence, The SBM Jollof Index: Staple under stress, 23 April 2025, url

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  1077. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 40

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  1078. Germany, BMZ, Nigeria – Social situation: Pervasive poverty and corruption, 2 February 2024, url

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  1079. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 40

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  1080. UNICEF, Humanitarian Situation Report No. 1, January-April 2025, 15 May 2025, url, p. 4

    ↩︎

  1081. Wasting is defined as ‘a life-threatening form of malnutrition’. See UNICEF, 1 in 3 children in Nigeria experiences severe child food poverty due to conflict, climate crises, and inequity, 7 June 224, url

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  1082. GHI, Nigeria, n.d., url

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  1083. Food Security Cluster, Nigeria, n.d., url; Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, pp. 38-39

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  1084. Food Security Cluster, Nigeria, n.d., url

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  1085. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, p. 7

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  1086. WFP, HungerMap: Nigeria, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  1087. FEWS NET classifies food insecurity into five phases: Phase 1, minimal, Households are able to meet essential food and non-food needs without engaging in atypical and unsustainable strategies to access food and income; Phase 2, Stressed, Households have minimally adequate food consumption but are unable to afford some essential non-food expenditures without engaging in stress-coping strategies; Phase 3, Crisis, Households either have food consumption gaps that are reflected by high or above-usual acute malnutrition; or are marginally able to meet minimum food needs but only by depleting essential livelihood assets or through crisis-coping strategies; Phase 4, Emergency, Households either have large food consumption gaps which are reflected in very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality; or are able to mitigate large food consumption gaps but only by employing emergency livelihood strategies and asset liquidation; and Phase 5, Famine, households have an extreme lack of food and/or other basic needs even after full employment of coping strategies. Starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident. FEWS NET, What is the IPC?, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  1088. FEWS NET, Nigeria acute food insecurity, n.d., url

    ↩︎

  1089. IPC, Cadré harminisé, n.d., url

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  1090. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 21

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  1091. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, p. 2

    ↩︎

  1092. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, p. 12

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  1093. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, p. 2

    ↩︎

  1094. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, pp. 7-8

    ↩︎

  1095. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, p. 28

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  1096. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 23

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  1097. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 23

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  1098. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 30

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  1099. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, pp. 6, 11

    ↩︎

  1100. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, p. 6

    ↩︎

  1101. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, p. 12

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  1102. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, pp. 8, 12

    ↩︎

  1103. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, p. 7

    ↩︎

  1104. Germany, BMZ, Nigeria – Social situation: Pervasive poverty and corruption, 2 February 2024, url

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  1105. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, p. 9

    ↩︎

  1106. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, p. 9

    ↩︎

  1107. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 6

    ↩︎

  1108. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 6

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  1109. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 20

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  1110. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 27

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  1111. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 27

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  1112. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 5

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  1113. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, pp. 19-20

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  1114. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 20

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  1115. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 20

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  1116. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 23

    ↩︎

  1117. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, p. 12

    ↩︎

  1118. World Bank (The) and Switzerland, Lagos Multi-Sector Analytical Review and Engagement Framework, June 2023, url, p. 3

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  1119. DW, Lagos' housing crisis and a vision for the future, 26 November 2024, url

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  1120. Guardian (The), Rising sea levels, illegal sand mining hurt Lagos homes, coastal communities, 10 June 2014, url; Republic (The), The luxury apartment complex in Lagos, 21 February 2025, url

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  1121. Sun (The), Land Reclamation in Lagos 2010 – 2024, 29 July 2024, url

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  1122. Guardian (The), Rising sea levels, illegal sand mining hurt Lagos homes, coastal communities, 10 June 2014, url; Republic (The), The luxury apartment complex in Lagos, 21 February 2025, url

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  1123. Guardian (The), Lagos housing deficit hits 3.4m, over 70% residents remain renters, 7 July 2025, url; okayafrica, Young Nigerians Turn to Shared Living as Lagos Faces a Housing Crisis, 10 July 2025, url

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  1124. RIRFHUD is a corporate social responsibility effort and a non-governmental initiative aimed at providing information and analytics to the development of the housing market in Nigeria. RIRFHUD, About us, n.d., url

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  1125. Punch, Lagos delivers 2.5m housing units amid 3.4m deficit – Report, 7 July 2025, url. See also: Guardian (The), Lagos housing deficit hits 3.4m, over 70% residents remain renters, 7 July 2025, url

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  1126. Guardian (The), Lagos housing deficit hits 3.4m, over 70% residents remain renters, 7 July 2025, url; okayafrica, Young Nigerians Turn to Shared Living as Lagos Faces a Housing Crisis, 10 July 2025, url

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  1127. Punch, Lagos delivers 2.5m housing units amid 3.4m deficit – Report, 7 July 2025, url

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  1128. Punch, Lagos rents soar by 91% in five years, 22 January 2024, url

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  1129. Nation (The), Abuja residents groan under high rent, 21 May 2025, url

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  1130. Borgen Project (The), The divide between wealth and poverty in Abuja, 27 June 2025, url. See also: Nation (The), Abuja residents groan under high rent, 21 May 2025, url

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  1131. Borgen Project (The), The divide between wealth and poverty in Abuja, 27 June 2025, url. See also: Nation (The), Abuja residents groan under high rent, 21 May 2025, url

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  1132. Nairametrics, Scarcity of affordable housing options in Abuja traps poor Nigerians in slums, 4 November 2024, url

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  1133. Nation (The), Abuja residents groan under high rent, 21 May 2025, url

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  1134. World Bank (The), Human Capital, Country Brieg: Nigeria, October 2024, url

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  1135. World Bank (The), Nigeria: Featured indicators, n.d., url

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  1136. Germany, BMZ, Nigeria – Social situation: Pervasive poverty and corruption, 2 February 2024, url; Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 12

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  1137. UNICEF, Nigeria Education Fact Sheets, 2023, url, pp. 17-18

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  1138. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 13

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  1139. UNICEF, The challenge, n.d., url

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  1140. PwC, 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook, 2025, url, p. 60

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  1141. PwC, 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook, 2025, url, pp. 59-60

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  1142. PwC, 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook, 2025, url, p. 60

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  1143. UNICEF, The challenge, n.d., url

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  1144. UNICEF, The challenge, n.d., url

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  1145. PwC, 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook, 2025, url, p. 60

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  1146. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, pp. 9-10

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  1147. UNICEF, The challenge, n.d., url

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  1148. UNICEF, The challenge, n.d., url

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  1149. UNICEF, The challenge, n.d., url

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  1150. Business Day, Five rail transport projects that can shape Nigeria’s economy, 24 March 2025, url

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  1151. Daily Trust, Bridging the Gap: Why Nigeria Needs Skills-Based Education for Its Youth, 27 June 2025, url; Business Day, National development through vocational education, 25 June 2025, url

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  1152. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 58

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  1153. Business Day, Five rail transport projects that can shape Nigeria’s economy, 24 March 2025, url; Punch, Nigeria’s shrinking skills gaps, 17 June 2025, url

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  1154. Punch, Nigeria’s shrinking skills gaps, 17 June 2025, url

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  1155. Punch, Nigeria’s shrinking skills gaps, 17 June 2025, url

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  1156. Business Day, Widening skills gap keeps millions of Nigerians jobless, 19 March 2025, url

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  1157. Daily Trust, Bridging the Gap: Why Nigeria Needs Skills-Based Education for Its Youth, 27 June 2025, url

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  1158. Business Day, Widening skills gap keeps millions of Nigerians jobless, 19 March 2025, url

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  1159. Business Day, Five rail transport projects that can shape Nigeria’s economy, 24 March 2025, url

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  1160. Business Day, Five rail transport projects that can shape Nigeria’s economy, 24 March 2025, url

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  1161. Daily Trust, Bridging the Gap: Why Nigeria Needs Skills-Based Education for Its Youth, 27 June 2025, url

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  1162. Business Day, Five rail transport projects that can shape Nigeria’s economy, 24 March 2025, url

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  1163. Nigeria, The State House, In Detail: The Student Loan (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2024, 4 April 2024, url

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  1164. Nigeria, NELFUND, Frequently Asked Questions, n.d., url

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  1165. News Reservoir, Industrial Training Fund set to empower five million Nigerians artisans annually – DG, 24 April 2024, url; People’s Gazette, FG launches initiative to empower five million artisans yearly, 24 June 2024, url

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  1166. Punch, FG begins training for 5 million youths, 26 June 2024, url

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  1167. NAN, ITF trained 29,000 youths in various skills in 2024, says D-G., 24 May 2025, url; Peoples’ Gazette, ITF trained 29,000 youths in various skills in 2024: Official , 24 May 2025, url

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  1168. Daily Trust, Bridging the Gap: Why Nigeria Needs Skills-Based Education for Its Youth, 27 June 2025, url

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  1169. Daily Trust, Bridging the Gap: Why Nigeria Needs Skills-Based Education for Its Youth, 27 June 2025, url

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  1170. Daily Trust, Bridging the Gap: Why Nigeria Needs Skills-Based Education for Its Youth, 27 June 2025, url

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  1171. Daily Trust, Bridging the Gap: Why Nigeria Needs Skills-Based Education for Its Youth, 27 June 2025, url

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  1172. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 6

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  1173. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 6

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  1174. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 22

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  1175. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 7

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  1176. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 22

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  1177. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 22

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  1178. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 7

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  1179. Senior representative at NCFRMI, online interview with EUAA, 6 August 2025

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  1180. Austria, Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, and NOIPolls, Nigeria: Socio-Economic Survey 2024, url, pp. 9-10

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  1181. UNICEF, Nigeria Education Fact Sheets, 2023, url, p. 27

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  1182. UNICEF, Nigeria Education Fact Sheets, 2023, url, p. 27

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  1183. UNESCO, Nigeria: Education Country Brief, January 2024, url

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  1184. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 18

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  1185. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 18

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  1186. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 18

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  1187. PwC, 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook, 2025, url, pp. 59, 61

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  1188. UNFPA, State of the World Population Report 2025 ‘The Real Fertility Crisis: The pursuit of reproductive agency in a changing world’, 16 June 2025, url, pp. 139

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  1189. Germany, BMZ, Nigeria – Social situation: Pervasive poverty and corruption, 2 February 2024, url

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  1190. Lloyds Bank, Nigeria: Economic and Political Overview, May 2025, url; UNICEF, Health & HIV, n.d., url

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  1191. Lloyds Bank, Nigeria: Economic and Political Overview, May 2025, url; New South Wales, Ministry of Health, List of countries where tuberculosis (TB) is common, 28 November 2024, url

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  1192. Lloyds Bank, Nigeria: Economic and Political Overview, May 2025, url

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  1193. UNICEF, Humanitarian Situation Report No. 1, January-April 2025, 15 May 2025, url, p. 2

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  1194. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 18

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  1195. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 5

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  1196. WHO, Maternal mortality ratio (per 100 00 live births), 7 April 2025, url

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  1197. PwC, 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook, 2025, url, p. 61

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  1198. World Bank (The), Nigeria: Featured indicators, n.d., url

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  1199. Nigeria, Federal Government of Nigeria and UNICEF, The State of Nigeria’s Children: Summary of the 2024 Situation Analysis of Children and Adolescents in Nigeria, 2025, url, p. 6

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  1200. WHO, Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2020, 2023, url, p. 35

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  1201. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025– Nigeria, 2025, url

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  1202. USDOS, 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria, 22 April 2024, url

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  1203. USDOS, 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria, 22 April 2024, url

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  1204. WHO, Country Health Systems and Services Profiles Nigeria, 2025, url, p. 327

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  1205. UNFPA, The Real Fertility Crisis: The pursuit of reproductive agency in a changing world, 16 June 2025, url, p. 90

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  1206. UNFPA, The Real Fertility Crisis: The pursuit of reproductive agency in a changing world, 16 June 2025, url, p. 90

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  1207. USDOS, 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria, 22 April 2024, url

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  1208. USDOS, 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria, 22 April 2024, url

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  1209. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 6

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  1210. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 6

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  1211. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 6

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  1212. Nigeria, Lagos, Ministry of Health, Lagos Inaugurates Implementation Team For Mandatory Health Insurance, 22 June 2025, url

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  1213. Nigeria, Lagos, Ministry of Health, Lagos Inaugurates Implementation Team For Mandatory Health Insurance, 22 June 2025, url

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  1214. Punch, FCT minister approves employment of 34 resident doctors, 2 April 2025, url; Nation (The), Wike approves employment of 34 doctors, 2 April 2025, url

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  1215. UNFPA, The Real Fertility Crisis: The pursuit of reproductive agency in a changing world, 16 June 2025, url, p. 90

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  1216. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 5

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  1217. TVCNews, 123m Nigerians Captured In National Identity Database – NIMC, 16 September 2025, url

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  1218. ILO, ILOSTAT data explorer: Nigeria, n.d., url

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  1219. Jobberman, Nigeria’s informal sector: A Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transitions for Young People, 2024, url, p. 60

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  1220. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 5

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  1221. Nigeria, NBS, Nigeria General Household Survey - Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024), 2024, url, p. 7

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  1222. Njila, M. M., An analysis of the Legal Framework for the Protection of Women Against Discriminatory Practices in Nigeria, 8 September 2024, url, p. 82; Kehinde, O. J. and Abdulraheem, M., Prohibition of Discriminatory Laws and Practices Against Women’s Rights in Nigeria, 29 November 2024, url

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  1223. For instance, Chapter III, Section 26 of the Constitution limits a Nigerian woman’s ability to confer citizenship on her foreign spouse. See Nigeria, The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Updated with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Alterations (2010), 4th Alteration (2017) and 5th Alteration (2023), September 2024, url, Chapter III, Section 26; Kehinde, O. J. and Abdulraheem, M., Prohibition of Discriminatory Laws and Practices Against Women’s Rights in Nigeria, 29 November 2024, url

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  1224. Kehinde, O. J. and Abdulraheem, M., Prohibition of Discriminatory Laws and Practices Against Women’s Rights in Nigeria, 29 November 2024, url

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  1225. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025 – Nigeria, 26 February 2025, url; Kehinde, O. J. and Abdulraheem, M., Prohibition of Discriminatory Laws and Practices Against Women’s Rights in Nigeria, 29 November 2024, url

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  1226. WEF, Global Gender Gap Report 2025: Nigeria, Economic profiles, 11 June 2025, url, pp. 287-288

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  1227. USDOS, 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria, 22 April 2024, url. See also: NAN, Girls have equal rights to inheritance as boys, 12 August 2025, url

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  1228. Canada, IRB, NGA200797.E - Nigeria: Situation and treatment of single women and of women who head their own households, including their ability to live on their own and access housing, income, education, health care, and support services, particularly in Port Harcourt, Abuja, Ibadan and Lagos; impact of COVID-19 (2019–October 2021), 10 November 2021, url

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  1229. Canada, IRB, NGA200797.E - Nigeria: Situation and treatment of single women and of women who head their own households, including their ability to live on their own and access housing, income, education, health care, and support services, particularly in Port Harcourt, Abuja, Ibadan and Lagos; impact of COVID-19 (2019–October 2021), 10 November 2021, url

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  1230. Nairametrics, Nigerian Orphanages to consider supporting this Christmas season, 22 December 2024, url; Christianity Today, Their Families Abandoned Them. Emeagwali Took Them In., 21 May 2025, url

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  1231. Christianity Today, Their Families Abandoned Them. Emeagwali Took Them In., 21 May 2025, url

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  1232. Christianity Today, Their Families Abandoned Them. Emeagwali Took Them In., 21 May 2025, url

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  1233. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 4

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  1234. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 4

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  1235. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 12

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  1236. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 6

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  1237. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 12

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  1238. African Union, Kampala Convention: African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internationally Displaced Persons in Africa, 2012, url, Art. III

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  1239. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 13

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  1240. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, p. 8

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  1241. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, p. 11

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  1242. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, p. 11

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  1243. FEWS NET, Nigeria - Food Security Outlook, June 2025 – January 2025, 9 July 2024, url, pp. 11-12

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  1244. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 11

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  1245. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 18

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  1246. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, pp. 18-19

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  1247. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 24

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  1248. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 10

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  1249. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 25

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  1250. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 10

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  1251. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 11

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  1252. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 11

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  1253. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 11

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  1254. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 11

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  1255. Nigeria, The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Updated with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Alterations (2010), 4th Alteration (2017) and 5th Alteration (2023), September 2024, url, Art 41

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  1258. The Sun, S-o-u-t-h-e-a-s-t: Outcry as roadblocks turn to cashpoints, 12 January 2025, url; Business Day, Multiple checkpoints on Nigerian roads hindering trade growth – Experts, 25 June 2024, url

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  1259. The Sun, S-o-u-t-h-e-a-s-t: Outcry as roadblocks turn to cashpoints, 12 January 2025, url; Business Day, Multiple checkpoints on Nigerian roads hindering trade growth – Experts, 25 June 2024, url

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  1260. The Guardian, 24-hour curfew hits Kaduna residents hard, markets, shops closed, 6 August 2024, url; Daily Trust, Insecurity: Zamfara govt Imposes curfew along Sokoto, Katsina borders, 2 April 2024, url

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  1261. Business Day, Multiple checkpoints on Nigerian roads hindering trade growth – Experts, 25 June 2024, url

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  1262. The Sun, S-o-u-t-h-e-a-s-t: Outcry as roadblocks turn to cashpoints, 12 January 2025, url

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  1263. The Sun, S-o-u-t-h-e-a-s-t: Outcry as roadblocks turn to cashpoints, 12 January 2025, url

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  1264. USDOS, 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria, 22 April 2024, url

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  1265. UNHCR, Annual Results Report 2024: Nigeria, 29 May 2025, url, p. 25

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  1269. Punch, Nigerians with expired passports can return home, says FG, 24 December 2024, url; Business Day, Explainer: New immigration rules you must know before travelling in, out of Nigeria, 13 June 2025, url

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  1270. The ‘Domestic airports’ webpage indicates that there are 16 ‘domestic airports’; however, 4 out of the 16 airports are domestic terminals in the international airports of Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt. Nigeria, FAAN, Domestic Airports, n.d., url

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  1271. Nigeria, FAAN, Our Airports, n.d., url

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  1272. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) code is used to uniquely identify locations like airports . See IATA, homepage, nd. url

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  1273. Nigeria, FAAN, MMIA, Lagos, n.d., url

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  1274. Nigeria, FAAN, MMIA, Lagos, n.d., url

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  1275. Nigeria, FAAN, MMIA, Lagos, n.d., url

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  1276. FlightRadar24, LOS/DNMM, Lagos Murtala Mohammed Airport, Nigeria, n.d., url

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  1277. Nigeria, FAAN, NAIA, Abuja, n.d., url

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  1278. FlightRadar24, Abuja routes and destinations, n.d., url

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  1279. Nigeria, FAAN, Makia, Kano, n.d., url

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  1280. Nigeria, FAAN, Makia, Kano, n.d., url

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  1281. FlightRadar24, Kano routes and destinations, n.d., url

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  1282. Nigeria, FAAN, PH International Airport, n.d., url

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  1283. Nigeria, FAAN, PH International Airport, n.d., url

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  1284. FlightRadar24, Port Harcourt routes and destinations, n.d., url

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  1285. Nigeria, FAAN, Akanu Ibiam International Airport. (Enugu), n.d., url

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  1286. Nigeria, FAAN, Akanu Ibiam International Airport. (Enugu), n.d., url

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  1287. FlightRadar24, Enugu routes and destinations, n.d., url

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  1288. Nigeria, FAAN, Domestic airports, n.d., url

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  1289. Nigeria, NCAA, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, n.d., url

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  1290. Travel Hunters (The), List of all Airlines in Nigeria: Their Owners and Official Websites (Updated), n.d., url

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