Nigeria: Relief, Drainage and Resources

What you need to know

• Nigeria lies between about 4 degrees and 14 degrees north, and 3 degrees and 15 degrees east, covering about 923,768 square kilometres. It is bordered by Niger to the north, Chad to the north east, Cameroon to the east, Benin to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the south.
• The highlands include the Jos Plateau in the centre at about 1,200 m to 1,800 m, the Mambilla Plateau in Taraba, the Adamawa and Gotel Mountains on the Cameroon border, the Obudu Plateau in Cross River, the Western or Yoruba Highlands around Idanre and Ekiti, the Udi or Awka-Orlu cuesta in the south east, and the Biu Plateau in Borno.
• The highest point in Nigeria is Chappal Waddi in the Gotel Mountains of Taraba State, at about 2,419 m. The Jos Plateau is built largely of older granites and is the source of the tin and columbite that once made Jos a mining town.
• The lowlands include the Sokoto Plains in the north west, the Chad Basin in the north east, the Niger and Benue trough running across the middle of the country, the Cross River basin, the Lagos and Niger Delta coastal lowlands, and the Benin and Niger lowlands west of the Niger.
• The River Niger rises in the Fouta Djallon highlands of Guinea, flows about 4,180 km through Mali, Niger and Nigeria, enters Nigeria near Yelwa in Kebbi State and runs south east to Lokoja. Its chief Nigerian tributaries are the Sokoto or Rima, the Kaduna and the Anambra.
• The River Benue rises in the Adamawa highlands of Cameroon, enters Nigeria near Yola and flows west to meet the Niger at Lokoja, where the confluence gives Kogi State its name. Its chief tributaries are the Gongola, the Katsina Ala, the Donga and the Taraba.
• Below Lokoja the combined river flows south and splits at Aboh into the many distributaries of the Niger Delta, among them the Nun and the Forcados, before entering the Atlantic. The Niger and Benue together drain about two thirds of Nigeria.
• Rivers draining directly to the Atlantic outside the Niger system include the Ogun, Osun, Benin, Imo and Cross Rivers. Rivers draining inland to the Lake Chad basin include the Yobe or Komadugu Yobe, the Hadejia, the Jamaare and the Yedseram, which is why Lake Chad is an inland drainage basin with no outlet to the sea.
• Major dams and their rivers are Kainji and Jebba on the Niger, Shiroro on the Kaduna, Tiga on the Kano River, Challawa Gorge in Kano, Bakolori on the Sokoto or Rima, Dadin Kowa on the Gongola, Goronyo in Sokoto and Oyan in Ogun. They serve hydro-electric power, irrigation, water supply, fishing and flood control.
• Petroleum and natural gas come from the Niger Delta sedimentary basin, mainly Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Ondo, Edo and Abia States, with a growing offshore share. The first commercial discovery was at Oloibiri in present-day Bayelsa State in 1956, and export began in 1958.
• Tin and columbite are mined on the Jos Plateau. Coal occurs at Enugu, at Okaba in Kogi and at Lafia-Obi in Nasarawa. Iron ore is at Itakpe and Agbaja in Kogi, feeding the Ajaokuta steel project and Delta Steel at Aladja.
• Limestone, the raw material for cement, is quarried at Ewekoro and Ibese in Ogun, Obajana in Kogi, Nkalagu in Ebonyi, Gboko in Benue, Ukpilla in Edo, Sokoto and Mfamosing in Cross River. Marble comes from Igbeti in Oyo and Jakura in Kogi.
• Other minerals are gold at Ilesha in Osun, Birnin Gwari in Kaduna and Anka and Maru in Zamfara; lead and zinc at Abakaliki and Ishiagu in Ebonyi, Zurak in Plateau and Arufu in Taraba; gypsum in Sokoto and Gombe; salt at Awe in Nasarawa and Uburu and Okposi in Ebonyi; bitumen in the Ondo and Ogun belt; and kaolin and clay widely.
• Nigeria's resource problems are over-dependence on crude oil, oil spillage and gas flaring in the Delta, illegal and unregulated artisanal mining, abandoned mine ponds on the Jos Plateau, deforestation, soil erosion and poor processing capacity, so most minerals leave the country as raw material and come back as finished goods.