The Federal Republic of Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and eight in the world with over 140,000.000 people comprising over 250 ethnic groups speaking over 500 living languages and living under four distinct systems of law.

It is bounded by Niger to the north Benin to the west and Cameroon and Chad to the east. Nigeria has vast untapped reserves of mineral wealth and although its booming oil industry has seen a vast increase in wealth it has been offset by a serious decline in agricultural production.

Health care in Nigeria is poor and suffers from a ‘brain drain’ of qualified doctors. In 1995, 21,000 Nigerians doctors were practising in the USA alone: the same number as in the Nigerian public service.