Factionalised elites and poverty decline: Why Nigeria is No.14 on the failed state index

The  Funds for Peace organisation recently released its failed state index where Nigeria came in at number 14.

Top 14
1. Somalia. 2. Congo Democratic Republic. 3. Sudan. 4. Chad. 5. Zimbabwe. 6. Afghanistan. 7. Pakistan
8. Guinea. 9. Cote d’Ivoire. 10. Central African Republic. 11. Iraq. 12.Yemen. 13. Haiti. 14. Nigeria

The index compiled information from a variety of sources, including news websites, newspapers, governmental sources to compile information which is fed into a computer and comes up with the rankings.

The ranking comes up in two halves: Pressures, socio-economic combined with political and military indices served as the first measure. Capacity, the ability of the state to deal with the pressures that push a state towards a failed state, made up the other half. They include civil society, media, civil service, police, leadership, et cetera. Nigeria ranked 151st out of 177.

Nigeria did well on some indices including human flight, legitimacy of the state, and uneven development, in large part due to the election of President Goodluck Jonathan last year and “the Uneven Economic Development score improved, reflecting President Jonathan’s pledged economic reforms.” Still, even the sunny spots had some clouds as it continued, “Nonetheless, the disparity of GDP per capital between the north and the south continues to grow.”

One of the more interesting scores gauged was that of “factionalised elites”, defined as when local and national leaders engage in deadlock and brinkmanship for political gain, this undermines the social contract. Nigeria held steady year on year, but the country’s overall score has declined over the last five years.

The “poverty and decline” index was also particularly poor, and the organisation noted: “Nigeria has withdrawn $2 billion from its crude oil savings for ‘various projects’ and devalued the currency to help support growth as inflation pressures remain high. The Sharp or Severe Economic Decline score worsened as inflation increased 11.5% in 2011.”

For more, read below or head to the website to download the PDF on their website.

Country Summary for Nigeria:

 

The entire report:

 

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail