This question was not attempted by many candidates and the performance of most candidates that attempted it were poor due to inaccurate mapwork. Also, some of the candidates who attempted the question were not able to properly describe the geography of the western highland.

A good description of the Western Highland should include:

Relief of the Western Highland

- The Western Highland is made up of an upland plateau located in Western Nigeria;

- from the general plateau surface are outcrops of hills such as Apata, Epinmi, Idanri and Kukuru hills; - the heights of these hills range from 300 – 600 metres above sea level;

- a few of the hills have peaks of up to 1000 metres e.g. the Idanre hill;

- the predominant rock type is the basement complex rocks;

- the hills are steep sided. Economic activities of the Western Highland The basic economic activities on the Western Highlands include:

- farming of cash crops e.g. kola nut, oil palm, cocoa;

- farming of food crops e.g. maize, yam, cassava, vegetables;

- rearing of livestock particularly goats, poultry and sheep;

- heavy industrial manufacturing e.g. car assembly, cement, beverage industries, plastic companies etc;

- local crafts industries e.g. the production of cane chairs, weaving, tie and dye etc; - quarrying of rocks scattered over the geographical region;

- tourism industry e.g. the Olumo Rocks, numerous hotels, the Lagos Bar Beach etc;

- commercial activities at the numerous commercial banks, insurance companies, stock exchange market, large ultra modern markets etc. Problems of development

- hilly terrain pose problem to the development of transportation routes in some places;

- water logged terrain makes road construction difficult in some places;

- high population with poor physical planning results in the development of slums and ghettos;

- environmental pollution following industrial and commercial activities;

- urban flooding due to blockage of drainage channels;

- pronounce rural urban migration leading to rural depopulation;

- problems related to land tenure;

- leaching of soil nutrients in lateritic soil. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________