Information minister Lai Mohammed says a prediction that Nigeria would break up in 2015 did not materialise, asserting that current predictions by individuals and organisations will also fail.
A former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, and one other expert had suggested that Nigeria had become a failed state calling on the U.S. government to step to salvage the country from total collapse.
Mr Mohammed stated, “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.”
He added, “Yes, the Council on Foreign Relations is a prominent U.S. public policy Think Tank, but its opinion is not that of the U.S.
“Like former U.S. Senator Daniel Moynihan said, ‘You are entitled to your opinion but not your facts.”
Mohammed reiterated that Nigeria did not fit the bill of 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,’’ he said.
Mr Mohammed added, “We were even once told that Nigeria would break up in 2015.
“But their doomsday predictions have all failed and will fail again.”
