A day after Reverend Mathew Kukah said Nigeria was almost a failed state under President Muhammadu Buhari, the impression has been echoed again from the North.
The Coalition of Northern Groups warned that Nigeria is drifting into a failed state, listing seven factors to justify their claim.
These, according to the CNG’s spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, are poverty, corruption, ineffective governance, crime, violence, forced displacement and sectarian and ethnic conflict which are all apparent.
He added that apart from comatose economy, the erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions and the inability to provide public services were all indicators of a failed state.
‘The Punch’ quoted him as saying on Sunday:
“Other signs of failing as a nation manifested long ago in the form of erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions and inability to provide public services.
“The economy had been so endangered that we have had to slip into two major recessions in just five years which is unprecedented.
“Regardless of whether we choose to call it fragile, failed, or failing state, Nigeria is plagued by overwhelming problems with few solutions in sight.
“Moreover, the level of instability and dire straits of Nigeria today are spilling across national borders, destabilizing neighboring countries and regions, while posing enormous challenges for international organizations and donors; which signifies failure.
“Nigeria is today unable to provide fundamental societal requirements and basic services to its citizens such as health, education, housing, welfare, employment, security, justice, governance and human rights.
“Buhari and his men would need to do more than taunt victory in the face of failure with all the economic and political indicators based on demographic pressures, poverty and economic decline, state legitimacy, security, human rights, rule of law, and fractionalized elites pointing at a failed state.”
Kukah had also accused the President of nepotism, saying he was exploring the fact that he was a northern Muslim.
The Federal Government has, however, slammed Kukah, noting that he was calling for a coup, based on what he said that the government would have been overthrown if Buhari was not a northern Muslim.
