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 with all the signs of a failed nation. The organization, which made the disclosure in a research finding it released through its senior fellow and former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. 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 shocking analysis did not come to many Nigerians as surprise. Since the inception of the Buhari administration in the last six years, many national and international organizations have shared similar fears on how the country is gradually drifting into state of anarchy, as the result of incessant insecurity. Under the present administration, insecurity has taken a dangerous dimension. The North west states have become den of kidnappers and bandits.
The armed bandits have continued to overrun communities in Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Kaduna States. Their murderous activities have so far displaced many helpless farming communities with looming famine staring the country in the face. Added to this growing insecurity challenges are the activities of IPOB with its violent ESN wing unleashing terror, attacking security formations and INEC facilities. It seems the country is waging a survival war. While different approaches have been adopted by government to resolve the security challenges bedevilling the country, including military actions and negotiations, these strategies have failed to yield the desired results. We have seen how states like Katsina and Zamfara rolled out and granted amnesty to bandits who agreed to lay down their arms. Sadly, the repentant bandits after embracing the amnesty quickly abandoned it and moved back to forest. There is loud call from the country’s geographical zones on the need for the constitution to be amended or national dialogue convened as the panacea for achieving lasting peace in the country.
Since the return of democracy in the last two decades, efforts were being made to address the numerous challenges affecting the country through national conferences. It is on record that both the Obasanjo and Jonathan administrations convened national conferences aimed at resolving the lingering questions of nation-building process. However, the outcomes of these conferences usually end up in the shelf. While the ongoing zoning hearing for constitutional amendment is timely and expedient, the government should go beyond it. There is the need for government to re-evaluate its policies. In a situation where the bulk of resources is spent on maintaining our costly democracy at the detriment of over 70 million jobless youths, is not helpful. Any government which relegates the youths does it at its own risk. Government should redirect its resources to agricultural and youths’ empowerment. By so doing, the temptation of going into crimes or taking arms against the state will subside. Nigerians should do all what it takes to save the country from collapsing.
