Nigeria at the point of no return, according to a US report

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Harvard Kennedy School in the United States have said that Nigeria as a nation is at a point of no return with all the signs of a failed nation.

The organization that published the disclosure in a research by its senior colleague and former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell and Mr. Robert Rotberg, Harvard Kennedy School’s founding director of the internal conflict program and President Emeritus, World Peace Foundation , said Nigeria is currently in its final phase from which it would eventually collapse.

The organization said its position was based not on emotion or the idea of ​​using derogatory words to describe the situation, but on “a collection of political theories developed around the turn of the century and evolved on a case-by-case basis”.

His report said Nigeria has since gone from being a weak state to being a “totally failed state”, showing all the signs of a failed country, including the government’s inability to protect its citizens, large-scale violence and simmering riots.

According to them, President Muhammadu Buhari admitted that the federal government had lost control of the situation and was the first step towards restoring stability. The duo warned that the failure of Nigeria as a state would have negative consequences for peace and security in the sub-region of West Africa as well as in Europe and the USA.

“Nigeria has long been on the brink of failure. But now that Nigeria is unable to protect its citizens, it has become a utterly failed state of critical geopolitical concern.

“Your failure is important because the peace and prosperity of Africa and preventing the spread of disorder and militancy around the world depend on a stronger Nigeria.

“Its economy is usually considered to be the largest or second largest in Africa after South Africa. Nigeria, the hegemon of Long West Africa, played a positive role in promoting African peace and security.

“With the failure of the state, he can no longer maintain this calling and there is no replacement in sight. Its security challenges are already destabilizing the West African region in the face of resurgent jihadism, making it much more difficult to contain the fighting in the Sahel.

“And the impact of Nigeria’s failures will ultimately have an impact on the security of Europe and the United States.

“Indeed, thoughtful Nigerians have often fervently debated over the past decade whether their state has failed. There is a growing consensus that this is the case, ”reads the report published on Foreignpolicy (dot) com on Thursday.

The report goes on to say, “There are four types of nations: the strong, the weak, the failed, and the collapsed.

“According to previously published research estimates, of the 193 members of the United Nations, 60 or 70 are strong – the nations featured on Freedom House lists, US State Department human rights reports, Transparency International’s Anti-Corruption Perceptions Indexes, and so on.

“There are three places that should be considered collapsed: Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

“Eighty or 90 UN members are weak. Weakness is in providing many, but not all, of the essential public goods, of which security is the most important. Unless citizens are protected from harm within national borders, governments cannot provide good governance (the essential services that citizens expect) to their voters.

“A dozen or so states may have failed, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Myanmar. Everyone has no security, is insecure, has weak legal norms, is corrupt, restricts political participation and participation, discriminates against different classes and types of citizens within their borders, and offers only sparse educational and medical services. Failed states in particular are violent.

“All failed states harbor some form of violent internal struggle, such as civil war or insurrection. Nigeria is now facing six or more internal uprisings, and the inability of the Nigerian state to provide peace and stability to its people has ruined a previously very weak state.

“According to political theory, the government’s inability to thwart the Boko Haram uprising is enough to diagnose Nigeria as a failed state. But there are many more symptoms. At the very least, citizens expect their states to protect them from attacks from outside and within their borders.

“The deal that subjects long ago made with their rulers was saved from harm in exchange for allegiance and taxes. When this consideration collapses, a state loses its coherence, its social fabric crumbles, and belligerent groups undermine the social contract that should form the fundamental basis of the state.

“Nigeria now seems to have reached the point of no going back. In fact, few parts of Nigeria are completely safe today, ”the report added.

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