NIGERIA has been described as one of the world’s most unstable countries by Washington non-governmental organisation The Fund for Peace due to the incessant violence that has recently wrecked the country of late.
In its 12th annual Fragile States Index (FSI) released yesterday, the Fund for Peace ranked Nigeria alongside war-torn Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraqi, Guinea, Pakistan, Burundi and Zimbabwe as unstable countries. It stated that the situation in Nigeria deteriorated in 2015 compared with 2014 as a result of continued violence.
Fund for Peace cited the economic downturn occasioned by the fall in oil price and the activities of Boko Haram in the north-eastern part of Nigeria for classifying it among countries where peace deteriorated in 2015. Nigeria was also placed among countries classified as high alert, meaning that the situation has worsened compared with the previous year.
This category is just one level shy of the very high alert which comprises countries like Syria, Somalia, Central Africa Republic, Congo Democratic Republic, Yemen, Chad, Sudan and South Sudan, where peace has totally collapsed. The 2016 FSI comprises data collected between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015, so events that occurred since are not included in it.
Based on the Fund for Peace’s proprietary Conflict Assessment System Tool analytical platform, the index is an annual ranking of 178 nations based on their levels of stability and the pressures they face. It is based on comprehensive social science methodology, data from three primary sources are triangulated and subjected to critical review to obtain final scores for the FSI.
Millions of documents are analysed every year and by applying highly specialised search parameters, scores are apportioned for every country based on 12 key political, social and economic indicators and over 100 sub-indicators that are the result of years of painstaking expert social science research. In an explanation note, the Fund for Peace cited Nigeria as another example where destabilising cross-border effects could be seen.
A Fund for Peace spokesman said: “Beset by a tumultuous electoral campaign in 2015 that saw the administration of Goodluck Jonathan unseated by the return to power of Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s standing in the Fragile States Index has worsened, as the economy is deeply impacted by falling oil prices and the north of the country is terrorised by Boko Haram insurgency.”
It stated that like the crisis in Syria, pressures had bled across Nigeria’s borders to its neighbours and categorised Nigeria’s neighbour, Cameroun, as the second most worsened country in 2016. In addition, the organisation observed that Boko Haram has widened its campaign beyond Nigeria’s borders and is kidnapping and ambushing Cameroonian security forces, as well as targeting civilians.
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