Nigeria manifests many symptoms of a failed state, argues Sonnie Ekwowusi
After initially taunting Nigeria as a weak state or a falling State confronted with doom and existential threats, the international community has now affirmed that Buhari’s Nigeria has cascaded into the abyss as a full-fledged failed state. At present, Nigeria exhibits the major symptoms or features of a failed state; erosion of authority of the government to make collective decisions; incapacity of President Buhari to defend as well as secure the borders of Nigeria from internal and external violation in consonant with sections 1 (2) and 2(1) of the 1999 Constitution; suppression of freedom of expression such as banning the use of Twitter in Nigeria and threats to prosecute Nigerians using Twitter; inability of President Buhari, pursuant to section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution, to protect lives and property of the citizenry and to suppress internal insurrection, banditry, secession threats, murder, anarchy, tension, fear, suspicion, disorderliness, hatred and chaos everywhere in Nigeria. The impression one gets wittingly or unwittingly on listening to Mr. President is that he is confused or that he has lost control of the state of affairs in Nigeria.
It is sad that like Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Central African Republic and Myanmar, Nigeria has become a full-fledged failed state. Nigeria can no longer guarantee the safety of her citizens. Nigeria is unsafe. Nigeria has weak rule of law. Foreign investors are scared stiff coming to Nigeria. Foreign investors already in Nigeria are contemplating quitting. Many young Nigerians are fleeing. The Central Bank policies are erratic as much as they constitute a barrier to investment in Nigeria. Nigeria borders are porous. Boko Haram insurgents, bandits and all sorts of gunmen are infiltrating Nigeria through her porous borders. All failed states harbor violence, internal rebellion and insurrection and different forms of violent internal strife. At present, Nigeria harbours different forms of internal insurrection.
It is obvious that the Buhari government is incapable of providing peace and stability to the people of Nigeria. In the past the mass killing, banditry, kidnapping, assassination and internal insurrection were restricted to only North Eastern Nigeria. Now the whole country is engulfed with violent killings, insurrections and mayhem. For example, hardly any day passes these days without some Nigerians in different parts of the country being killed or mowed down or abducted or willfully assassinated. We have lost count of the serial abduction of school children. In fact parents whose children are in boarding houses in secondary schools are contemplating withdrawing them from there to save them from being abducted.
The latest at the time of writing was the abduction of over 200 school children of Islamiyya School at Tegina in the Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State. This testifies that Nigeria is a failed state. How can abductors abduct over 200 students from a school without any security personnel or onlookers noticing it and raising an alarm? Besides, how can abductors abduct over 200 school pupils at a go? With trailers, trucks or what? Mind you, this is not the first time we are witnessing such a mass abduction of school children. On February 26 2021 barely nine days after abduction occurred in Niger State, 317 girls were abducted from a government girls’ secondary school in the Jangebe area, Zamfara State. On April 20 2021, about 22 students and staff of Greenfield University were abducted. Five of the students and a staff were killed by the abductors.
But the most tragic of them all depicting Nigeria as a failed state is the on-going extra-judicial killings and gross human rights abuses being perpetuated in South Eastern Nigeria by the Nigeria police and Nigerian army. Under the guise of conducting house-to-house raids to smoke out IPOB and ESN members from their hideouts in the South-East, the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police, abandoning the Rules of Engagement (ROE), have been killing and injuring unarmed civilians in the South-East. It is amazing that anti-Igbo sentiment and Igbo hatred are yet to fizzle out 51 years after the civil war. You can see how Igbo are continuously being made the scapegoat of the simmering Nigerian political crises. For example, rebels, killers, abductors, arsonists, secessionists and doomsayers abound in different parts of the country. In the North they are freely killing Nigerian and destroying public facilities for years under the watch of the Nigerian army. The Fulani herdsmen have been freely going about killing and maiming their victims. The Nigerian army does not crush them. Miyetti Allah, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi and others have been inciting the citizens and making utterances that verge on treasonable felony. They get away with them. They are untouchable. Igbo are the targets. You can see how they are taking advantage of the recent violent killings and destruction of public facilities in Igbo land to re-enact or fan the embers of pre-civil war Igbo prejudice towards the Igbo people. President Buhari has just reminded the Igbos that they were massacred during the civil war. Sad. Meanwhile fully-armed Nigerian soldiers are being dispatched to Igbo land to crush the people there. I have nothing against bringing Igbo arsonists, violent brewers, public property destroyers and trouble makers to justice. But what is detestable is the maligning of the entire Igbo race. Why the name-calling? Why continuously harbor hatred against the Igbos? Why contemptuously label Igbos as secessionists when there are secessionists across the ethnic groups in Nigeria? Why kill or maim unarmed innocent Igbo civilians? Must the truth offend? After 51 years, why can’t they forgive the Igbos?
It is unfortunate that President Buhari has squandered the confidence and trust reposed in him by his admirers. The last six years of his reign as civilian President have been six years eaten by locusts. It is difficult to pinpoint one singular achievement of the Buhari government. The government came to power on the mantra of fighting corruption. Now, six years on, it is obvious to all and sundry that the Buhari government itself is corruption writ large. Perhaps one achievement of this government in the last six years is to drag Nigeria into the membership of failed states. Imagine the most populous and most richly endowed African country joining insignificant countries such as Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Somalia, South Sudan and Myanmar as a full-fledged failed state. Buhari’s Nigeria has failed on all fronts – politically, economically, socially, culturally, intellectually and morally. Consequently in the media, beer parlours, pulpits, lecture rooms, market places, stadia and other fora, Nigerians soberly ask the following questions: What does the future hold for us and our children under Buhari? Where is hope? And President Buhari is not helping matters. He is unrepentant. He is violating the right to freedom of expression of Nigerians. His managers should properly advise him if he cares to listen to them.
