Elder statesmen, Chief Edwin Clark and a Professor of African History, Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Ibadan, Isaac Albert, have reviewed the security situation and other developments and declared Nigeria as a failed state where nothing works again and one nearing its total collapse.
Professor Albert, who said there are nine stages of state collapse, warned that Nigeria has reached the eighth stage and is now floundering dangerously on the precipice.
Speaking at a National Restructure Actualisation Summit (RAS) in Abuja, Clark, who is a former Federal Commissioner of Information, noted that the 1999 Constitution Nigeria currently runs with is a scam.
The foremost Ijaw leader spoke of the plight of the people of the Niger Delta, who he maintained, had suffered most under the Nigerian project. While noting that the SouthSouth is the region that sustains the country, Chief Clark said: “Nobody can dispute that fact. But we do not control our resources. What we people of Niger Delta want is pure restructuring through federalism, a situation where we can control our resources and pay tax to the centre. Other regions have enjoyed this before.
“So, we have suffered the most in Nigeria. We are not saying we should have everything that belongs to us, but we the people of Niger Delta believe in restructuring through federalism.
“Nigeria is a failed state, failed state in the sense that nothing works anymore. Bring the best experts to come and manage Nigeria under the 1999 Constitution, it will not yield any result because the 1999 Constitution is a scam.
“The last constitution we had in this country was the 1963 Constitution. The 1999 Constitution was dictated by the military and handed down to Nigeria and that is why nothing works. “Some people who run Nigeria were beneficiaries of the 1963 constitution, beneficiaries of true federalism.”
Professor Albert, who spoke in an interview on Fresh FM in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, warned further that with just a little national trigger, which he said could be pulled by the action or inaction of the political leadership, the entity called Nigeria would crumble altogether. The peace and conflict expert lamented that the strong leadership required to pull the country back from the brink has been absent, adding that it would take about 50 years to remedy the security problems already created in the country.
“Criminals are waxing strong because they have the backing of government and state officials. When our state officials talk, you know that they are part of the problem.
“Let us pick the statement of the Bauchi State governor [Bala Mohammed] who said herdsmen are entitled to carry AK-47. Somebody who swore to protect law and order in the country coming out to say that?
“That statement has a deeper interpretation in security study. What the governor was trying to do is to make the herdsmen look like victims and not perpetrators of criminalities. The people to blame, therefore, are those in the communities that are invaded by these criminals.
“When you twist logic that way, what we call it in the realm of security study is that we are moving towards total state collapse. What we are witnessing in Nigeria today is near total state collapse.
“Nigeria is already a failed state. Let us stop deceiving ourselves. We have nine stages of state collapse and in Nigeria, we are at the eighth stage. The next stage is just a matter of a national trigger pushing us.
“I am sure that is why the North is being a little bit careful at this moment because if they pull the trigger, the whole country will collapse. Everything that is holding the country together, ethnicity, religion, economy and all other structure is tampered with.
“We need strong leadership at this time, but unfortunately that leadership is not there. Everything is collapsing and pulling back the country from the precipice will take about 50 years.
“We have created too many problems. And this is why it is difficult to see a scholar write on these things. It is difficult to analyse because all the theories have crumbled. “Boko Haram is winning its war against the Nigerian state. Boko Haram has never hidden its intention of fighting Western education which it is doing directly and by proxy. The agenda to kill Western education in the North is being achieved and it is also having negative effects on the campaign for girl-child education.
“They have taken 317 girls in Zamfara State. We have never had it so bad, not even at Chibok or Dapchi. Their capacity for evil is increasing every day and the helplessness of the Nigerian state is becoming more evident. “Following the Zamfara abduction, the governor of Kano State and other northern governors have announced the closure of boarding schools in their jurisdictions,” he said.
