The Anglican Bishop Diocese of Amichi, Rt Rev. Ephraim Ikeakor, yesterday said the bad situation of Nigeria has degenerated from things falling apart to the situation the people can only recall that there was a nation called Nigeria.
Bishop Ikeakor said that the existence of Nigeria is seen to becoming dubious, and Nigeria is gradually becoming a failed state because it has lost the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within its borders, which have been broken through the dominant presence of warlords, paramilitary groups, corrupt policing, armed gangs, and terrorist groups and terrorism activities.
He disclosed this in his presidential address to the 2nd session of the 5th synod of Diocese of Amichi, held at St. Peter’s Anglican Church Umudim Amichi, Nnewi South Local Government Area, Anambra State. He stated that a nation where bandits, terrorists , kidnappers, and criminals take their nefarious activities to state and public infrastructures and facilities, like the airport, railways, Correctional centers, military bases, police stations and major highway, without resistance from the nations security agencies is a worrisome green light signaling a failed state.
He further said that Nigeria has manifested all the features of a failed state, which according to the Fragile State Index, FSI, in its eleventh annual report of 2015, prepared by the Fund for Peace, and published by Foreign policy Magazine listed twelve indicators of a failed state under three broad heading as, Social Indicators, Demographic Pressures, Refugees or Internally Displaced Persons, Group grievance/ Agitations, Human fight and Brain drain.
“When I remember and want to discuss our nation Nigeria though unwillingly most of the time, the first thing that flashes on my mind are three books written by Professor Chinua Achebe, which include: The Arrow of God; Things Fall Apart, and There was a Country, “Before now, we were shouting that things are falling apart in Nigeria, but now, every right-thinking person living in this country knows that there was a country called Nigeria. “According to the political theories of Max Weber, a state is defined as maintaining a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within its borders, But when this is broken through the dominant presence of warlords, paramilitary groups, corrupt policing, armed gangs, terrorists, and terrorism activities, the very existence of the state becomes dubious, and the state becomes a failed state.”
