Corporate governance • EITI. Nigeria is the first African country to adopt the EITI. This calls for independent audits of oil and gas sectors in order to promote a culture of transparency and accountability for oil and gas companies on the one side, and for government on the other. In addition, Nigeria has passed legislation to enhance the operation of this initiative in the country. Socioeconomic development • Gender empowerment. Efforts to promote affirmative action in Kebbi State include: appointing more women to positions of leadership; building more schools and providing free education at primary and secondary-school levels; establishing community-based centres for school dropouts caused by early marriages; building special hospitals for women and children; raising awareness on HIV and AIDS; making efforts to pass legislation relating to violence against women; and undertaking various initiatives for economic empowerment, including the granting of loans and skills training. 5. OVERARCHING AND SPECIAL ISSUES 5.1 The CRM for Nigeria has identified certain issues that require further attention. These issues are grouped into two categories. Overarching issues are those matters that have been identified in more than one area of governance. They require a holistic approach in view of the wider impact that they have on the quality of governance in the country. Ten overarching issues were identified for Nigeria: Managing diversity and promoting nation building within the framework of the federation With a population of over 140 million, Nigeria is the most populous and longest-lasting federal system in Africa. It has one of the most diverse societies in terms of ethnicity, culture, religion, geography and economic disparities. Nigeria is also one of most linguistically diverse countries, with over 250 ethnic groups and some 510 living languages. Nigeria has attempted to manage the diversities within the federation by structuring its institutions and administration in a manner that allows it to mediate its sectional politics and ethnoterritorial demands and to balance competition over resources. Among the strategies to confront these challenges has been an ‘ethnic balancing arrangement’, called the Federal Character Principle. This prescribes that the country’s diverse segments are equitably represented in public institutions. The Nigerian federation has also developed a mechanism for distributing federally controlled resources to state and local levels, called the revenue-sharing formula. However, national integration remains elusive because of intersectional competition for numerical superiority. This is fanned by attempts to secure political advantage and preferences in the distribution of resources. 19