The federal government has said it is preposterous for anyone to declare Nigeria a failed state due to the country’s security challenges.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this yesterday in response to a recent declaration by the Council on Foreign Affairs in the United States that “Nigeria is at a point of no return with all the signs of a failed nation.’’
Former US Ambassador to Nigeria and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. John Campbell, and the President Emeritus of World Peace Foundation, Mr. Robert Rotberg, had urged the United States to acknowledge that Nigeria is a failed state in the light of the many challenges plaguing the country.
“Nigeria’s worldwide companions, particularly the USA, should acknowledge that Nigeria is now a failed state. In recognition of that truth, they need to deepen their engagement with the nation and search to carry the present administration accountable for its failures, while additionally working with it to supply safety and proper financial system,” they had said in an article.
But Mohammed said in Abuja that “Nigeria is not and cannot be a failed state.’’
He stated that the declaration by the council did not represent an official US policy.
Mohammed said: “This declaration is merely the opinions of two persons, former US Ambassador to Nigeria and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, John Campbell, and the President Emeritus of World Peace Foundation, Robert Rotberg.
“Declaring any nation a failed state is not done at the whims and caprices of one or two persons, no matter their status.
“Just because Nigeria is facing security challenges, which we have acknowledged and which we are tackling, does not automatically make the country a failed state.
“Like former US Senator Daniel Moynihan said, “You are entitled to your opinion but not your facts.”
Mohammed said Nigeria did not meet the criteria for a nation to become a failed state.
He listed the criteria to include the inability to provide public service and inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community.
“Yes, the non-state actors may be rampaging in some parts of the country; they have not and cannot overwhelm this government,’’ he said.
The minister said it was not the first time it was predicted that Nigeria would fail or break up.
He added: “We were even once told that Nigeria would break up in 2015. But their doomsday predictions have all failed and will fail again.’’
