Nigeria is now a failed country; Buhari to blame - Former American Ambassador to Nigeria tells US

Former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, and a former Director with Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Prof. Robert Rotberg, have called on the United States to acknowledge Nigeria as a failed state.

According to them, the decision is a result of the heightened security challenges in the country.

This statement was stated in an article titled, "The Giant of Africa is Failing" which was published in the May/June edition of Foreign Affairs magazine.

Campbell and Rotberg noted that the level of insecurity in Nigeria is at its peak and the present administration should be blamed for the failures of the nation.

The article read in part, "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."

Both men were of the view that the security operatives have also been unable to stem crime as the criminals and terrorists are more equipped than the officers.

Buhari's administration they say, has moved the country from a weak state to a failed state. sighting example with the inability of the federal government to conquer Boko Haram.

"Underneath the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, a number of overlapping safety crises has remodelled Nigeria from a weak state right into a failed one. Buhari’s authorities has struggled to quell numerous Jihadi insurgencies, together with the one waged by the militant group Boko Haram," the article read.

They further noted that the Federal Government seem to have given up by allowing some groups to take over and dictate the activities of the government.



Former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell (L), and a former Director with Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Prof. Robert Rotberg (R)

Adding that schools have been affected badly by the rampant kidnappings and killings in most parts of the country.

The article reads, "Regional quasi-police forces and militias—generally related to state governments however not often formally sanctioned—train de facto authority in some areas. However, in lots of others, the federal authorities have successfully ceded management to militants and criminals."

Campbell and Rotberg believe occurrences in Nigeria affect other countries in Africa.

With a population of over 200 million, Nigeria depends too much on oil and is regularly faced with economic disasters, they said.

"However the Nigerian state has long failed to supply its residents with social companies and Nigerian politics is basically an elite sport disassociated from governance.

"The Federal Government doesn’t or cannot tax the true wealth of the nation, stays too depending on income from oil and gasoline, and lurches from one fiscal disaster to a different. Corruption is structural, too, casting almost everybody as each perpetrator and sufferer."

The authors called on the US to assist civil society and non-governmental organisations in their fight to strengthen the nation's democracy.