The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and the Harvard Kennedy School in the United States, have said that Nigeria as a nation, is at a point of no return haven showed all the signs of a failed nation.
The organisation, which made the disclosure in a research finding it released through its senior fellow and former US Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell and Mr. Robert Rotberg, who is the founding director, Harvard Kennedy School’s Programme on Intrastate Conflict and President Emeritus, World Peace Foundation, said Nigeria is currently in its final phase, from which it would eventually collapse.
The organisation said their position was not based on emotion or the fancy of using pejorative words to describe the situation, but on “a body of political theory developed at the turn of this century and elaborated upon, case by case, ever since”.
Its report said Nigeria has since moved from being a weak state to ‘a fully failed State’, having manifested all the signs of a failed country, including the inability of the government to protect the citizens, large-scale violence and festering insurgency.
The duo warned that Nigeria’s failure as a State comes with negative consequences for peace and security in West Africa sub-region as well as Europe and the US.
“With State failure, it can no longer sustain that vocation, and no replacement is in sight. Its security challenges are already destabilising the West African region in the face of resurgent jihadism, making the battles of the Sahel that much more difficult to contain.
“And spillover from Nigeria’s failures ultimately affect the security of Europe and the United States”, the report, published on foreign policy(dot)com on Thursday, said.
The report further says, “According to political theory, the government’s inability to thwart the Boko Haram insurgency is enough to diagnose Nigeria as a failed state. But there are many more symptoms. At a bare minimum, citizens expect their States to keep them secure from external attack and to keep them safe within their borders.
“When that quid pro quo breaks down, a state loses its coherence, its social fabric disintegrates, and warring factions subvert the social contract that should provide the fundamental foundation of the State.
“Nigeria now appears to have reached the point of no return. Indeed, few parts of Nigeria are today fully safe”, the report added.
According to them, President Muhammadu Buhari admitting that the Federal Government has lost control of the situation is the first step towards the restoration of stability.
