The Norway history starts from 7,000 BC when this land became habitable after the ice age. This country is famous for its Vikings, who raided the UK, France, and even Spain, that was in Muslim hands. From the 9th century the country was divided into different kingdoms. That was till the 12th century, when the country was combined. Christianity became the main religious of Norway in the 11th century. Over the whole history there were several waves of the Black Death that killed the majority of people and having destroyed many buildings.
Only on 23 September 1905 Norway became an independent state. Two years later women were allowed to vote in elections. During the First and the Second World Wars Norway remained neutral. But it did not prevented the Germans invade Norway. After 1945 Norway gave up the policy of neutrality and in 1949 it joined NATO.
The history of Nigeria is even longer than the Norwegian one. At least, the facts tell about the first civilization, settling the land in 11,000 BC. However, as an independent state, Nigerian history began in 1960 after the civil war. Before that, it was a British protectorate. Only at the end of the 20th century the country regained the democracy. Now Nigeria is a member of different international organization, such as Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the United Nations (UN), and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Nigeria’s score of freedom of the economy is 55.1. This means that its economy is the 120th freest in the year of 2013. Last year it was 1.2 points lower, because of the decrease in the governmental control under spending and monetary freedom. With comparison to other Sub-Saarinen African countries, Nigeria is on the 21st out of 46 countries. Also, its overall score is just below the world average one.
The oil sector dominates the economy of the Nigeria. As a result, there was a great increase in producing the oil goods, and now the economy expands quickly. It has already achieved an average annual growth rate of 7% over the past five years.
Norway with its economic freedom score of 70.5 points, made its economy the 31st freest. It has increased in 1.7 comparing to last year. In the Europe Norway is the 16th country of 43. Furthermore, its score is even above the world one. That is why Norway is in the category “mostly free”. The reasons for that is that the economy is that the Norwegian economy is very competitive and the policies support dynamic trade and investment into the country. Besides, the government provides an effective protection of property rights, and there is a tradition of a little tolerance with corruption continues.
Level of poverty tells much about how people live in the country. In Norway this level is approximately 14 % due to the crisis in 2008. But, the poverty in this country is very rich one, so it is not the same to be poor in Norway and in other country, for instance, in Nigeria, where the level of poverty is very high about 50% of the population.
Regarding education and literacy in Norway, it has to be mentioned that all people, living there are high-education. In comparison, Nigerian literacy rate is only 61.3%. men in the country are more educated than women, 72.1% and 50.4% respectively (see table 1). However, all children of 15 years old and over can read and write.
Source: Trading economics. Indicators: Literacy Rate in Norway and Nigeria, 2012.Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
Nigeria is the seventh most populous country in the world. More than 174 million people live there. English is the official language in Nigeria. but there are more than 5 hundreds local languages. The majority of people in county speak Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba languages.
Norway is located in Europe, to be exactly, in Scandinavia and has borders with the North Atlantic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea, Sweden, and Finland. The temperature in Norway in winter is not very low no less than -6 °C, and only in some regions is lower than -10 °C. as for summer temperature, the highest degree can be 16 °C.
Another situation is in Nigeria. As it is located in western Africa, the temperature differences are noticeable. Over the whole year the temperature in Nigeria is higher than in summer in Norway, more than 18 °C. in some region it can be even 40 °C.
Nigeria is a country who takes the aid. Every year it receives official development assistance of approximately 1 billion dollars from Development Assistance Committee. One of the members of it is Norway, giving one of the highest sums in 4.75 billion dollars. Having such a large sum, Nigeria does a lot for its people, as many of them have a place where to work and live. Of course, the healthcare system is in bad condition now, but, still, it needs time for every change.
The main reason why so many people in Nigeria live below the poverty line is poor health care conditions. As a result, many deaths among people are because of diarrhea (16%), malaria (24%), measles (6%) pneumonia (20%), and HIV/AIDS (5%). As not everyone has an access to hospitals, pregnant women have big complications and nearly 30% of newborn children die. Many of deaths happen at home. Of course, the strategy to improve the situation has been made, but it does not work properly, because there were no any changes towards improvements. Not many people are highly qualified to be good doctors.
Healthcare system in Norway is known to be universal and the most centralized one. Everyone is insured by the National Insurance Scheme. Norwegian health coverage is 100%, even foreigners, living in the country more than 3 month, can be covered. As Norway is a highly developed country it has modern technologies to fight against serious diseases. But, many Norwegians refuse from private insurance and go to another land for medical care, because very often the waiting lists are too long and sometimes one need to obtain it soon.
Norway is a constitutional monarchy, meaning that the heard of the state is the King Harald V. This monarchy has a parliamentary system that is the executive power dependents on support of the legislature. In Norway it is Stortinget. According to the constitution, executive powers belong to the king; still, they are exercised by the cabinet.
Following Montesquieu’s separation of powers, all powers in Norway are separated in legislative, executive and judicial power. The latter one consists of the Supreme Court, the main one, and the courts in regions.
Nigeria gas another political entity, which is a federal presidential republic, where the President is Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, being the head of the state and the national executive. As the country was a British colony, its political system is based on the Westminster System model.
Legislative power belongs to the government and the two chambers of the legislature, calling the House of Representatives and the Senate. The highest judicial power in Nigeria is the Supreme Court, like in Norway. So comparing these two countries, they both use Montesquieu’s theory of the separation of powers.
As for economic growth of these countries, one need to analyze some macroeconomic indicators, among them are gross domestic product per capita (GDP), unemployment rate, inflation rate, and many others.
As it can be seen from the graph, GDP per capita of both countries was growing noticeable. However, Norway has 62 times higher it than Norway (see fig.1). This means that Norwegian economic situation is much better.
Fig. 1. GDP per capita of Nigeria and Norway, 2011, 2012, 2013.
Source: the World Bank, GDP per capita; Nigeria, Norway, 2011, 2012, 2013; Web; 15 Dec. 2013.
Regarding the unemployment rate from the bar chart, the difference is not big. Over the three-year period the difference between two counties was only 1 per cent (see fig.2).
Fig. 2. The unemployment rate of Nigeria and Norway, 2011, 2012, 2013.
Source: the World Bank, the unemployment rate; Nigeria, Norway, 2011, 2012, 2013; Web; 15 Dec. 2013.
The inflation rate in Nigeria fell considerably from 2012 to 2013 (see fig.3). The reverse situation in Norway, as it was rising during the last 3 years. Still, it is much lower than Nigerian one.
Fig. 3. The inflation rate of Nigeria and Norway, 2011, 2012, 2013.
Source: the World Bank, Inflation rate; Nigeria, Norway, 2011, 2012, 2013; Web; 15 Dec. 2013.
Work Cited
"Norway" Trading Ecomnomics, 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
"Norway" Jan Lahmeyer, 29 Feb. 2004.Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
"Nigeria" The New York Times, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
"History of Nigeria" The Federal Ministry Of Information, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
"Norway" Jan Lahmeyer, 29 Feb. 2004. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
"Nigeria" The World Bank, 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
