Nigerian Government yesterday disagreed with the description of the country as a failed state by the United States Council of Foreign Relations (CFR).
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said “Nigeria is not and cannot be a failed state.’’
He said: “This declaration is merely the opinions of two persons, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations John Campbell, and the President Emeritus of World Peace Foundation, Robert Rotberg.
“Declaring any nation a failed state is not done at the whims and caprices of one or two persons, no matter their status.
“Just because Nigeria is facing security challenges, which we have acknowledged and which we are tackling, does not automatically make the country a failed state.
“Yes, the CFR is a prominent U.S. public policy Think Tank, but its opinion is not that of the US.
“Like former U.S. Senator Daniel Moynihan said, ‘You are entitled to your opinion but not your facts.”’
The minister stressed that Nigeria did not meet the criteria for a nation to become a failed state
“Yes, the non-state actors may be rampaging in some parts of the country, they have not and cannot overwhelm this government.
“We were even once told that Nigeria would break up in 2015. But their doomsday predictions have all failed and will fail again,’’ Mohammed said.