Obasanjo Lied, Nigeria Is Not A Failed State

 

 

 There is a great debate currently ongoing on whether Africa’s largest democracy, Nigeria is a failed state. The debate erupted following the statement credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo that Nigeria is now a failed state. The former President has been attacked for his position, while others believe that he was only stating the obvious. My mission is to look into the characteristics of a failed state and see whether Nigeria fit into that description and if it does what we can do to get out of it as fast as possible. And if we did not meet all the criteria of a failed state, but some of it, what we can do to halt the slide to be categorized as a failed state.

 

A failed state is a political body that has disintegrated to a point where basic conditions and responsibilities of a sovereign government no longer function properly. A state can also fail if the government loses its legitimacy even if it is performing its functions properly. For a stable state it is necessary for the government to enjoy both effectiveness and legitimacy.

 

The Fund for Peace characterizes a failed state as having the following characteristics: Loss of control of its territory, or of the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force

therein; Erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions; Inability to provide public services; Inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community.

 

 Common characteristics of a failing state include a central government so weak or ineffective that it has an inability to raise taxes or other support and has little practical control over much of its territory and hence there is a non-provision of public services. When this happens, widespread corruption and criminality, the intervention of state and non-state actors, the appearance of refugees and the involuntary movement of populations, sharp economic decline, and foreign military intervention can occur.

 

Metrics have been developed to describe the level of governance of states. The precise level of government control required to avoid being considered a failed state varies considerably amongst authorities. Furthermore, the declaration that a state has "failed" is generally controversial and, when made authoritatively, may carry significant geopolitical consequences.

 

 

The governing capacity of a failed state is attenuated such that it is unable to fulfil the administrative and organizational tasks required to control people and resources and can provide only minimal public services. Its citizens no longer believe that their government is legitimate, and the state becomes illegitimate in the eyes of the international community.

 

A failed state is composed of feeble and flawed institutions. Often, the executive barely functions, while the legislature, judiciary, bureaucracy, and armed forces have lost their capacity and professional independence.

 State failure comes in degrees and is often a function of both the collapse of state institutions and societal collapse. A strong state provides core guarantees to its citizens and others under its jurisdiction in the three interrelated realms of security, economics, and politics. A failed state cannot maintain a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence and minimize internal conflict. It cannot formulate or implement public policies to effectively build infrastructure and deliver services or effective and equitable economic policies. In addition, it cannot provide for the representation and political empowerment of its citizens or protect civil liberties and fundamental human rights. Thus, state failure manifests itself when a state can no longer deliver physical security, a productive economic environment, and a stable political system for its people.

 

The total collapse of the state marks the final, extreme phase of state failure, and very few states can be described as completely failed or collapsed. Yet, research demonstrates that many states suffer from various degrees of weakness and are

therefore potential candidates for failure. Weak states were failing with increasing frequency, most of them in Africa but also a handful in Asia and the Middle East.

For example, at the end of the 20th century, Somalia descended into state collapse under rival warlords, and Afghanistan, a failed state under the Taliban regime, harboured the terrorist group al-Qaeda.

 

If we objectively look at the criteria for classification as a failed state, we can see that Nigeria is not a failed state.

However Nigeria like other emerging nations has its fair share of challenges in dealing with non-state actors like Boko Haram and bandits, but the existence of these outlaws does not mean that has “lost control of its territory, or of the

monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force therein” because if it were so then India, China and many other nations battling one form of violent resistant groups are failed states. In Nigeria, there is no erosion of legitimate authority

to make collective decisions because we have a legitimate government elected in 2015 and reelected in 2019 with the National Assembly making the laws needed for the running of the country together with the executive led by President

Muhammadu Buhari.

 

One of the criteria of a failed state is the inability to provide public services. The provision of public service has always been a challenge to many emerging nations. That was why for years despite its economic growth, India was the poverty capital of the world with over 100 million people living on less than a dollar a day, until recently when Nigeria overtook the Asian country. The same can also be said of China among others. In fact if Nigeria is to be classified as a failed state because of inability to provide public services, then Obasanjo is a major culprit. He was the military head of state of Nigeria from 1976 to 1979 and later in his life he became democratically elected president for eight years. What infrastructure or public services did he put in place that was not sustained by his successors! Whatever he did with the best of his brain was nothing to write home about for him to pontificate about Nigeria being a failed state, unless he does not understand the meaning of a failed state.

 

Over the years there had been many public service reforms to improve the public services, but there are still challenges but that does not amount to the country being a failed state. Another indices of a failed state are the inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community. Even little children know that Nigeria has been interacting with the rest of the world under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, where the President has been elected Champion Against Corruption by African Union leaders to lead the campaign against corruption in the continent and Champion Against COVID-19 by ECOWAS Heads of States and Government to halt the spread of coronavirus in the sub-region.

 

However, despite the fact that

Nigeria is not a failed state, the country has the potential to become one if we fail to address the underlying grievances that made some people wishing that this country been thorn into pieces. We must deliberately build a country based on

justice, fairness and equity. Nothing would destroy this country and turn it to Somalia (poster face of a failed state) faster than religious and ethnic bigotry. Rwanda survived it, I doubt if Nigeria would, especially taking into

cognizance that the country is yet to heal from the wounds of the Civil War. We should also build our institutions so that public services could be run more efficiently and provide Nigerians with the better life they deserve. While Obasanjo

was wrong to say that Nigeria is now a failed state, we cannot dismiss the fact that this country has the potential to become one unless our leaders bury their differences and unite the country!