Henry Duru
14 November 2009
Last week Thursday, the House of Representatives was thrown into what may qualify as a brief drama following a motion by chairman, House Committee on Ethics and Privileges, Alhaji Sani Saleh-Minjibir (Kano, PDP), calling on the House to condemn a report by TELL magazine describing Nigeria as a failed state.
The magazine, in its October 5, 2009 cover story entitled "The making of a failed state" had purportedly concluded that Nigeria is a failed state in view of its numerous political and socio-economic shortcomings.
A number of lawmakers who contributed to the motion, though conceding that the nation is haunted by a myriad of problems, insisted that the situation is not enough to brand the nation a failed state.
The House therefore, resolved that "Nigeria, our dear country is not a failed state and it is unpatriotic for any Nigerian to say so."
However, it had turned out that while the debate that preceded this resolution was on, former Speaker of the House, Hon. Patricia Etteh had kick-started the drama of the day when she accused her party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of contributing to the woes of the nation.
Though disagreeing with the "failed state" imputation, Etteh said despite having been in power since 1999, the PDP has failed to provide adequate security during elections, arguing that the situation has aided the shortcomings observed in the nation's electoral system.
The ex-Speaker sighted her personal experience of 2007, when she said she personally monitored elections across some local government areas in her home state of Osun, where according to her, security lapses were observed.
But reacting to Etteh's observation, chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Alhaji Ibn Na' Allah accused her of being a beneficiary of the alleged shortcomings of the PDP which she had turned round to criticize.
"The PDP coerced us to accept Mrs. Etteh as the Speaker, the same PDP she is accusing of lacking internal democracy forced us to accept her as Speaker," he said.
This affront led to rowdiness in the chamber as some lawmakers began to shout out, calling on Na'Allah to apologize to the ex-Speaker. It was however, the House Minority Leader, Alhaji Mohammed Ndume who actually raised a point of order urging the lawmaker to apologise to Etteh.
Though Na'Allah did not tender the apology as demanded, Speaker Dimeji Bankole had intervened to restore a peaceful session.
But away from the drama in the House, the question of whether Nigeria is a failed state or not may have become one critical issue of the moment, particularly in the face of the multifaceted political and socio-economic challenges confronting the nation.
The ability of the country in justifying its statehood so far has become a subject of continuous debate.
Those who dispute the assertion that the nation has failed have always hinged their argument on the fact that notwithstanding the obvious shortcomings of the system, the nation's fortunes are still a far cry from those of the countries globally acclaimed as failed states whose problems are mainly as a result of wars which have devastated socio-political and economic life leading to severe hunger, mass homelessness, total breakdown of law and order and general insecurity.
However, to those on the other side of the argument, the nation does not have to degenerate to that extent to qualify as a failed state.
To Dr. Douglas Anele of department of philosophy, University of Lagos (UNILAG), the indicators of a failed state are already in Nigeria but are at their "various stages of maturation."
He argued that with massive failure of institutions, mass illiteracy, hunger, unemployment and general poverty, among others, the statehood of Nigeria can no longer be reasonably defended. He blamed the situation on poor leadership, which he said, has stifled the growth potentials of the nation.
Similarly, Lagos lawyer, Barrister Kennedy Kolawole said the fact that the country has failed is too obvious to be denied.
"The question of whether Nigeria is a failed state has already been answered by the stark reality of our economic and political woes. We don't need to be a war-torn country like Somalia or Liberia to qualify as a failed state.
"There is nothing else that communicates a failed state than when a state has failed to meet its responsibilities to its citizens. These responsibilities are basically security, economic well being and freedom to exercise rights. We can further expand them to include health provisions, food security, franchise, et cetera," he said.
Speaking further, he argued that the basic thing is that there is a contract between the citizens and the state, which both sides must respect, adding that once a state falters in respecting its own obligations, it has become a failed nation.
"The terms of this contract include that the citizens will pay taxes to the state in order that the state will have the resources to provide for them; the citizens will surrender their right of personal aggression to the state so that the state will protect and defend them through the official collective tools of aggression, for instance, the police.
"So as soon as the state falters in meeting any of these obligations, it has failed its citizens, it has failed to justify all the concessions made to it by the citizens," he contended.
Also contributing, Chief Reuben Ubaka, a legal consultant to Amnesty International (AI), argued that the nation's lawmakers lack the moral ground to debate on whether the country has failed or not, given what he saw as their role in bringing about the problems of the country.
He said, "I am of the view that if there is anybody to debate whether Nigeria has failed or not, it should not be our leaders because for everything that our nation suffers today, they are absolutely responsible.
"This is why I am not surprised at the way they were playing down an issue as urgent as this during their last week's debate. The truth is that those who benefit from or who have been responsible for the current woes of the country must always try to repress its terrible implications.
"But I am happy that a number of them did accept that our nation is at least failing, even if it has not totally failed. They have at least made some credible point here but it remains to see how prepared they are to stand up and right the wrongs of the past."
Ubaka said rather than "wasting time on fruitless arguments," the lawmakers should get down to work in order to improve the lot of the nation.
"We need more than a legislature that plays to the gallery by throwing up fruitless debates. What we need is a legislature that is alive to its responsibility, that understands how urgently we need to grow as a nation and so is ready to make progressive laws and discharge its oversight functions diligently and sincerely towards making the country greater," he said.
In the same way, Kolawole expressed the optimism that the nation will get over its problems and become great if, according to him, the right things are done. He said the assertion that the nation is a failed state, rather than be viewed as an embarrassment, should be rightly seen as an admission of errors towards their correction.
"I think because our lawmakers failed to understand that identification of errors is only the beginning of their rectification, they hurriedly adjudged the observation by TELL magazine as an insult. This is a very negative attitude which is capable of perpetuating a faulty system.
"We need a different mentality among our leaders to grow. By asserting that we have failed as a nation, one only implies that we have not done what we are supposed to do and so should turn a new leaf for a better tomorrow. This better tomorrow I strongly believe remains a definite possibility, but the onus squarely rests on us to do the right thing," he said.
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Nigerian government has not only argued their state of faillure reported by tell magazine but also by international observers of president Obama of USA represented secretary of state Hillary Clinton,this in no doubt prove that a fool at fouthy is a fool forever considering the state of insecurity,joblesnes, poor healthy and education. (KanoPDP)Alhaji Sani is one of those who has no human feelings anymore, even MR PRESIDENT was not satisfy with lapses by PDP during his election into power in 2007, which made him to call for electoral reform. There is no doubt that Ngeria as a failed state cannot be delivered by PDP since they have not accept the truth.
Nigeria has a long way to go in achieving what is called democracy, that is good gorvernace in the country considering the the (G20 VISION) as a maleria dream of mr president and (PDP) adminstration today. Chris (EUROPE)
Nigerian government has not only argued their state of faillure reported by tell magazine but also by international observers of president Obama of USA represented bysecretary of state Hillary Clinton,this in no doubt prove that a fool at fouthy is a fool forever considering the state of insecurity,joblesnes, poor healthy and education. (KanoPDP)Alhaji Sani is one of those who has no human feelings anymore, even MR PRESIDENT was not satisfy with lapses by PDP during his election into power in 2007, which made him to call for electoral reform. There is no doubt that Ngeria as a failed state cannot be delivered by PDP since they have not accept the truth.
Even an armed robber wouldn't want to be called a thief or a murderer. He will prefer to called a business man at least. The Horrible Members at Abuja will not like to hear the truth hence none of them is ready to change. They have raped and battered the Nigerian nation so badly that Nigeria in now in coma. If these so called members of the house are not mainly semi-illiterates, can they tell me any indices of a failed state that is lacking in Nigeria. When will these lazy parasites come to terms with the reality on the ground? Iyke Anaebuo writes from London