Only the ignorant call Nigeria a failed state –Gov. Sule

The Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, says those calling Nigeria a failed state are ignorant of what the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration is doing to revamp the economy and fight insurgency in the country.

Sule, who was a guest on a Channels Television programme, Sunday Politics, on December 27, was reacting to a publication by an international publication, the Financial Times, describing Nigeria as “drifting towards a failed state.”

Sule dismissed the report, describing it as one “borne out of ignorance and a deliberate ploy to dent the image of the nation.”

He stated that “Those saying that Nigeria is a failed state are just ignorant and are trying to undermine what President Muhammadu Buhari is doing in terms of the economy and security. I believe that although much more still needs to be done especially in the area of security, the country has significantly improved,” Sule said.

The Financial Times had, in a recent editorial, wrote that “Nigeria will become a problem far too big for the world to ignore” if urgent and drastic measures are not taken by the Buhari administration.

“The definition of a failed state is one where the government is no longer in control. By this yardstick, Africa’s most populous country is teetering on the brink,” the newspaper wrote.

Citing the recent abduction of 344 schoolboys from the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara local government area of Katsina State, the newspaper said:

“If the latest kidnapping turns out to be the work of Boko Haram, it would mark the spread of the terrorist group from its north-eastern base. Even if the mass abduction was carried out by “ordinary” bandits, it underlines the fact of chronic criminality and violence.

“Deadly clashes between herders and settled farmers have spread to most parts of Nigeria. In the oil-rich, but impoverished Niger-Delta region, extortion through the sabotage of pipelines is legendary,” the paper wrote.