Nigeria and the indices of a failed state

A failed state is often referred to as a state which has become incapable of fulfilling the basic functions of a sovereign government.

A failed state is also designated as a state where infrastructure has collapsed due to a lack of maintenance occasioned by mismanagement by the rulers.

This is the reason why political analysts and other public commentators are beginning to wonder where Nigeria is heading, taking into account the prevailing unhealthy political, economic uncertainties, and social happenings in the country.

Socio-economic infrastructures such as basic amenities, roads, industries, small, medium, and large scale, hospitals, high level of insecurity, epileptic power supply due to decayed and outdated power equipment as such industries can no longer render satisfactory services they were meant for, thereby pushing Nigeria to become like a non-working government.

Educational institutions appear to be collapsing following persistent series of strikes year in and year out by the academicians.

The rulers on their part have been drumming up support from amongst the citizens, particularly from the political class who are mostly card-carrying members of the ruling party calling on citizens to support their programs even as it is clear that such programs and policies are not people-oriented and non-developmental.

Money appropriated annually for use in infrastructural development is often fraudulently diverted into private pockets thereby allowing the infrastructure to decay further.

For instance, the power sector in Nigeria has become moribund and non-functional due to sustained neglect over the years even though there have been huge sums of money appropriated to the sector during the yearly fiscal budgets even after the much talk about privatization of the sector some years back, which process was viewed as lacking transparency.

Critics simply regard Nigeria as a failed state for several reasons; this is because greater numbers of Nigerians are living below one dollar a day.

These people are also believed to be living in abject poverty which translates into hunger and starvation. They are living from hand to mouth, finding it difficult to have one square meal a day.

The high cost of living with more than 1000% increment of foodstuffs in the Nigerian markets, increment of more than 800% of kerosene and cooking gas since the inception of the current government is becoming unbearable.

 Unemployment in the country is also becoming proportionally high every year, thereby causing an increase in the crime rate.

Many Nigerians are living in deplorable conditions – living in shelters without water and latrines.

These are the main reasons why Nigeria is seen by political pundits as progressively sliding into becoming a failed state.

Perhaps, corruption is believed to be the main trust, particularly within the political class which is the driving force, gradually driving Nigeria into becoming a failed state.

As indicated above, the indices pointing to a failed state stems from the fact that Nigerian leaders, particularly within the past two decades, have failed to give profound leadership direction rooted in dedication, honesty, integrity, and above all the political will to tackle and reduce corruption. Corruption is viewed generally as the main cankerworm that slows down economic growth and development in Nigeria.

Case in point, the power sector which is a veritable nerve centre of sustainable socio-economic growth is badly managed which translates into an erratic power supply, and it’s believed that the persistent shortage in electricity supply had grounded every effort to revamp the economy. Nearly, all foreign companies operating in Nigeria before have since been relocated to other countries due to the total collapse in electricity supply, and the high cost of petroleum products.

Nigeria nation is facing with economic crunch and lack of manpower development which is a result of poor standards of educational advancement caused by the inability of the government to properly equip the educational institutions to standard.

In Nigeria, immunity had become impunity and the multiplying effect is reflected in the lack of performance in governance and the poor masses continued to groan, which the best option could be to remove the clause of immunity from the nation’s constitution to promote good governance which will eventually bring about prudence, transparency, and accountability within the executive, the judiciary, and the legislative arms of government.

Certainly, what we needed now in Nigeria is a total transformation in all areas of the economy if Nigeria wants to be counted among the growing economies of the world by 2030.

Former American president, Franklin Roosevelt in his words, and I quote, “There’s nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy, the basic things expected by our people of their political and economic system are simple – There is equality of opportunity for youths and others, jobs for those who can work, security for those who need it, the ending of special privilege for the few, the preservation of civil liberty for all”

By implication, Roosevelt’s words are the basic necessity of any democratization process; therefore Nigerian leaders must strive harder to curb corruption in all ramifications to move Nigeria away from being a failed state.

Nowadays, it is disheartening to note that every discussion about Nigeria generally centre’s on the failure of leadership, corruption, unemployment, decaying infrastructures, and insecurity which characterize by incessant killings in different parts of the country invariably comes up as a core issue.

Despite all the resources the country had endowed with, the majority of Nigerian citizens are still living so deep in the poverty line, with diseases, hunger, and starvation.

Nigerian roads are death traps, sucking the blood of infants and the aged alike, and health centres are death centres, where there are not enough drugs to cure ordinary headaches.

The high cost of living continued to become more unbearable for both urban and rural dwellers. The educational sector which is supposed to be the bedrock of society and development is in disarray despite the huge budget made for the sector by the federal and state government of Nigeria.

Consequently, upon this, the whole money that is meant to improve our educational sector, agricultural produce, and other infrastructural sector of the economy, often goes to individual estates.

Perhaps, considering the huge amount of money paid to our politicians in the areas of security votes, wardrobes votes, monthly wages, and other domestic allowances, therefore there shouldn’t be any reason why they should temper with the public funds entrusted to them.

The president, the National Assembly members, the governors and state Houses of Assembly members as well as the local government chairmen and their counsellors all have cases to answer on why the country is failing gradually.

It is also very surprising to note that the whole budgets year – in – year – out that could have been channelled to improve our road networks, power, and transport systems always ended up in the pockets of politicians who are doing nothing rather than strutting around with impunity, but busy further assailing the sensibility of Nigerians.

According to the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Dahiru Mustapha in his media chart published by the Nigeria Vanguard in December 2012, Dahiru maintained that “Boko Haram insurgency political violence, corruption, nepotism, cronyism, tribalism, indiscipline, abduction, and kidnapping, armed robbery, murder, bribery and extortion, the bombing of places of worship and killing of innocent Nigerians in the process are all indicators of a failed state”Justice Dahiru remark on the state of the nation comment.

In Nigeria today there is no respect for the rule of law, most citizens view themselves as being above the law, showing no response to court actions.

No regard for human life, due to incessant killings in some parts of the country on hourly bases without a trace of the killers by the security agencies. According to research. Scores of thousands of lives have been lost in Nigeria since the beginning of democracy in 1999 to mass massacres by Boko Haram terrorist groups, killer herdsmen, insurgents, and kidnapping gangs.

Gabriel Suswam, former governor of Benue state was also quoted as saying during a lecture at the popular Third Kaduna Town Hall lecture: Titled “Our Diversity Our Strength” he said, “The madness killings going on in the North indicates that Nigeria is heading towards a failed society” this is because all the indices are there.

Suswam also categorically stated “A country where life becomes valueless, it means that that country is heading towards a failed society. Source the Nation Newspaper 8th March 2013.

A state is also deemed to have failed or sliding to failure because of political instability occasioned by an endemic and incumbent spate of corruption depicted by a bad electoral system which encourages electoral vices such as election rigging, ballot box stuffing, and mutilation of election result sheets, snatching of ballot boxes, intimidation of voters and money bag politics, for instant aspiring party members paying millions of Naira to delegates ‘to secure party tickets as it was widely reported in the just concluded party primaries of 2023 election.

Any country which condones electoral vices in their political system as enumerated above is also said to be heading toward becoming a failed state because political leaders produced from such fraudulent and suspicious electoral system are not credible and respected by the citizens, such leaders will also lack the political will to deal decisively with issues of corruption which is hinged on their inability to confront looters of the national treasury squarely because the looters are their associates in the fraudulent electoral process which brought them into power.

Money appropriated for the provision of infrastructure and essential amenities is often diverted and starch away to manipulate the process instead of channelling the funds for the development of infrastructures for the benefit of the citizenry.

Notwithstanding, Nigerian citizens should be sensitized by the government to love their fatherland by providing security and social welfare packages as provided for in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) as amended.

The gap between the rich and the poor should be narrowed through the introduction of policies that would amiable the rear emergence of the middle class.

This can be done through the provision of basic welfare schemes that would instil confidence in the citizenry that the government is not only for the high and might, but it cares for its citizens without class distinction.

Those found to have looted the treasury must be let to face the full wrath of the law and appropriate punishment be meted on them to serve as a deterrent for others who might have contemplated emulating the fraudulent behaviour of the treasury looters.

The ruling class must keep in check corruption and cupidity which had eaten deep into the fabrics of our society in recent years.

There must be a change of attitudes by the rulers by genuinely waging war against corruption and resuscitating the rear collapsed infrastructure.

President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 came up with a laudable objective of tackling corruption to the barest minimum by gradually eliminating it in our national life, but 7-years after, the fight is still not winning as Nigeria scored 24% out of 100% among the 180 countries rated in 2021 by Transparency International, TI among most corrupt nations of the world.

The apparent sliding of Nigeria into becoming a failed state is further aggravated by the ruler’s inability to confront the sliding trend frontally by initiating alternative policies that would address the trend.

This should be done by enforcing the anti-craft law which had been put in place without considering party affiliations or high place.

This anti-graft legislation has not been enforced as it should be since the incubus spate of corruption ravaging the Nigerian society is deemed to be a cardinal factor pushing Nigeria into becoming a botched nation.

The government could halt the sliding trend if it has the political will to do so.

Anti-graft agencies, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, and Independence Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission, ICPC, charged with the responsibility to arrest and prosecute corrupt offenders who pilfered public funds should spare no sacred cow. All should be equal before the law.

The only way that corruption can be checked or curbed completely, is for the Anti-graft officials to be more determined and proactive in carrying out their work.

This can be achieved if the operators of the graft agencies are allowed to work in a free atmosphere without interference by the executive who appointed them.

Most importantly, the president must not sit in the cog by allowing proper investigation and trial of public office holders when they are indicted, if Nigeria must stem corruption in the system.

Therefore, if Nigeria must win the fight against corruption, I recommend that we follow the way of the Chinese and introduce stiffer penalties on the offenders, not merely the imposed fines on the looters. This is if we want to genuinely kill the monster called corruption in our fabrics.

Although, if all hands must be on deck, and if the political class will be followed strictly the newly signed electoral act 0f 2022, Nigeria would record a significant improvement in the electoral process beginning with the 2023 general elections.

Where are the constituency and senatorial projects in this country?

There is a reason why Nigerians must get informed. We should now be aware that our lawmakers in the National Assembly are the highest paid in the world, a Senator is being paid a whopping N13M as a monthly salary making N156M a year, N624M in a 4-year single term while a House of Representative member is receiving a mouth-watering N9M per month as a basic salary making it N108 a year, and N432 a term, with more than N200M and N100M allowances paid respectively to each member of both higher and lower chamber of the National Assembly, 4 times a year to develop the areas they represent.

Yet, there is nothing to show for the huge allowances paid to them to cater to the particular needs of the area they represent.

It is also pertinent to note that if the allowances are not paid on time to them they can’t reconvene for legislative matters.

 It is also important to take notice that our legislators are the highest paid in the world.

I, therefore, recommend that the allowances and salaries of our legislators be reviewed and let them be held accountable for the constituencies and senatorial allowances if those funds are not properly, and equitably utilized.

 If those allowances are judiciously spent we would not be crying for bad governance in this country, there would be well-equipped hospitals everywhere. Good roads networks, and well-equipped educational institutions.

There won’t be infrastructural decay in this country; there would be water and shelter for everyone.

Therefore, the incoming politicians must look inward and strive for accountability to serve this country from being a failed entity.

Consequently, if there are no concrete steps taken now by the present government controlled by the All Progressives Congress, APC, thus, President Muhammadu Buhari must as a matter of urgent importance redress this abysmal monster termed corruption through continued mal-administration, else, Nigeria is gone and gone for good.