Is Nigeria a failed state (part 2)
''Nigerian government is making passionate efforts to make Nigeria be a failed state''
If you have not read the part one of this publication, kindly do so before reading the part 2. This is a continuation which can only be properly understood after reading the first part.
Sometime in 2011, a fellow Nigerian I encounter while traveling to Lagos stated that, I provide my own water, power, security and others. Why should I care about the government or a country that doesn't offer me anything? Also, according to National Bureau of Statistics as at 2012, 54% Nigerian youth are unemployed.
But again, Nigeria is full of surprises. Nigeria is a country where an unemployed youth can afford to make use of Black Berry phone and be making subscription of at least, ₦1,000 ($7) every month. Some unemployed Nigerians can raise about ₦1 million ($7000) to process their visa out of the country. Some could afford to drink 4 bottles of beer which cost about ₦600 ($5) on a daily basis despite their unemployed status.
It could then be concluded that indeed, Nigeria have the largest economy in Africa; it has the largest enterprising citizens and it also has the largest poverty. But despite its poverty, its citizens can still afford to provide certain alternative basic services for themselves.
Political indicatoris the third indication of whether a state is failed state or not. If a state is characterized with widespread corruption, violation of human rights, illegal security mechanism, decline of public services, intervention of foreign forces, rise of factionalised elites etc, it is another strong indication for a failed state. It is a well known fact that the incumbent president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has been accused of being the most corrupt president in the history of the country by the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC). Within a very short period of time, high government officials such as Ministers, central bank governor, members of house of representative, state governors just to name a few have been accused of massive corruption in high capacity while the president was watching helplessly. Some of the identifiable government officials accused of involving in corrupt practices include but not limited to the president himself,Goodluck Ebele jonathan, former Minister of Aviation, Miss Stella Oduah, former CBN governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido, Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Allisson Madeueke, former Minister of power, Prof Bert Nnaji, Honourable Farooq Lawal, Minister of interior, Abba Moro and countless others. Without any doubt, massive high profile corruption has been taking place in Nigeria's present day to day activities under the present administration.
Investigation shows that, the above indicators are reflections of unhealthy domestic conditions, some of which could arise as a result of internecine and ethnic wars and class or group rivalries. Therefore, the inability to manage contending objectives of the various forces in a state could trigger conditions that may turn the state into a failed state.
Oluwadare (2004) state that, the failed state condition also has snowballing effects on its own environment, called domestic effects, and also on its region, called neighbourhood effects. Domestic effects are evident when there is massive emigration and consequently, massive inflow of refugees into neighbouring states. It should also be noted that once a state loses control of its borders, illegal activities such as drug production and human trafficking thrive. These domestic effects trigger the neighbouring effects, which could come in form of the spread of various types of diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
Beyond these conditions, in some failed states may alter the political and socio-economic circumstances of neighbouring states. In recent years, quite a number of countries in Africa have experienced these conditions. Another major menace in Nigeria is the wide human rights violation by virtually every institution including the police force with massive unlawful detention,torture, assault, extra judicial killing etc.
Nigerian Army has also been severally accused of human rights violation in the troubled north eastern region. The government in this regard assume the number one violator of human rights and this manifest in the various anti peoples policies of the government, forced eviction, unlawful arrest, etc. Also, the factionalisation of parties equally assumed a mind-boggling dimension when it lasted. When the elites are factionalised, this will lead to unhealthy rivalry and meaningless struggle for power.
There are two major political parties in Nigeria, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressive Congress (APC). In 2013, the ruling PDP experienced a major factionalisation between old and new PDP with numerous confrontation which almost consume the party. This manifested in the factionalisation of the Nigeria's Governors Forum (NGF) which is dominated by the PDP governors. Though, the two factions went on their separate ways when one of the factions decamped to the opposition all progressive congress (APC). However, the issues leading to the split are still unresolved. This usually led to accusation and counter accusation even after decamping to the opposition party.
It is worth to note that, sectarian division of the elites breed unnecessary clash between followers which inversely contribute to the negative occurrences in a state.
While Nigeria can be said to have partially satisfied some indicators of a failed state as seen in the analysis, it still has indicators of development in some sectors which I believe partially lifted it away from the failed state category. Passionate efforts are still required to completely lift it beyond the state of failing. However, the current struggle for power which is breading all forms of criminality and lawlessness is seen by some as a passionate effort by the Nigerian state to fulfill all indicators of a failed state.
It is worthy to know that, there is no country in the world which completely satisfy the indictors of a developed state, neither is there any state that completely escaped indicators of a failed state. We must therefore make deliberate efforts towards resolving the issues which pointed Nigeria towards the failed state category.
1.2 How Nigeria is notfailing?
Having talked about indications of a failed state, there is the need to mention aspects of a developed state. Studies show that, the concept of development in relation to the circumstances of states focuses on the economic well-being and the social welfare opportunities open to the general populace. It is supposed to be a reflection of the economic circumstances of the people. It is worth noting that, foreign agencies such as the World Bank, IMF and many others engaged in international rating are not so conscious of the true situation of Nigeria. It is believed that over 70% of Nigerians live below one dollar per day, a claim was further confirmed by UNICEF, a United Nations' Agency.
In the report, UNICEF claimed that the 2006 United Nations Human Development Index places Nigeria at 159 out of 177 countries with 70.8% of its population living on less than one dollar a day and 92.4 percent on less than 2 dollars a day. Even though the agencies making these ratings did not say how they arrived at such statistics, it was deduced that it was based on the federal and state government minimum workers wage which is ₦18,000 or below in some states and private establishments. If this rating is solemnly based on the minimum wage, then it could be partially correct, but it is worth to note that many Nigerians do not live on their salaries alone. If ₦18,000 salary of a father equals $110 in a household of four, it would be correct to say such a household live on less than $1 a day assuming the wife is unemployed. However, if both the husband and wife earns ₦18, 000 ($110) each, such household cannot be said to be living under dollar per day.
From my private investigation among junior civil servant workers in four states in Nigeria, namely; Kwara, Lagos, Osun and Kano state, it was discovered that about 65% Civil Service workers have alternative sources of income. Apart from their daily jobs at the ministry, most of them had others sources of income such as provision stores, artisan workshop, taxi hire business, specialized skills and so on which complement their salaries.
A random survey among police officers in Kwara State indicates that, one out of every five police officers has a taxi and two out of every five officers equally have a commercial motorcycle popularly known as okada. Even those, in the private sectors also have similar alternatives which serve as a means of remedy to their insufficient monthly income. Findings further shows that, the income some workers earn through these alternative sources are even more than their usually monthly incomes.
Furthermore, it was revealed that, workers rely mostly on their alternative income for their daily lives, while the income from their main salaries are mostly channeled into insurance to build houses, buy cars, pay children's school fees, house rent and other things. A survey across most government ministries reveal that, 80 of workers under government payroll engage in contribution of certain percentage of their salaries to a cooperative society within their agency. Some workers contribute their entire salary to such contributions, while others contribute half of their monthly salary or below.
To be continued in part 3.
This article is culled from ''The truth about Nigeria'' a book by Abdulrazaq O Hamzat.
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