What the World Says About Nigeria

Written by Uduma Kalu

At Nigeria’s 51st anniversary, UDUMA KALU lists global reports on the country. Excerpts:

Nigeria 3rd fastest growing economy-IMF

Nigeria was ranked “the third fastest growing economy in the world after China and India by the (IMF) in 2009.” It further projects a growth of 9% in 2008 and 8.3% in 2009. The IMF further projects a 8% growth in the Nigerian economy in 2011.

Transparency International

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is one of the eight most corrupt national oil and gas companies in the world, Transparency International (TI), said. The TI in its 2011 report on global oil and gas companies was based on research conducted in 2010 in global oil companies.

Human Rights Watch on EFCC

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a recent report that allegations of internal graft, incompetence and political interference have undermined the work of the EFCC. In the 164-page, the US-based group noted that the EFCC has secured only four convictions of high profile individuals since it was set up in December 2002, and that even those convicted were given what amounted to a slap on the wrist. It rehashed statistics that suggest Nigeria lost more than $380 billion to graft and mismanagement from independence in 1960 to the end of military rule in 1999.

Nigeria Ranks 158th In UNDP’s 2009 Human Development Report

The United Nations Development Programme recently released its 2009 Human Development Report. Nigeria was ranked 158th out of 182 countries. Here are some stats:- Human Development Index 0.511 (158th). Below Uganda (157th) and Lesotho (156th) and just ahead of Togo, Malawi and Niger who are ranked 159th, 160th and 161st respectively.

– Life Expectancy of 47.7 years (ranking 167th). Below Mali and Mozambique and just ahead of Congo DR, Guines Bissau and Afghanistan- Adult Literacy Rate of 70% (ranking 112th). Below Lao and Tanzania and just ahead of Mali and Madagascar.- GDP Per Capita of $1969 (ranking 141st)- Human Poverty Index of 36.2 ranking 114th just ahead of Mauritania and Burundi. – 8th in remittances with average of $9,221

World Report on Nigerian Corruption

The World Bank has estimated that as a result of corruption, 80 percent of energy revenues benefit only 1 percent of the population.

US Council on Foreign Relations: To battle Boko Haram, drop your guns

Despite claims to the contrary, Boko Haram has not yet coalesced into a formalized terrorist organization. Accordingly, fighting them with firepower will not work. Diplomacy and democracy will, the US Council on Foreign Relations has said of Nigeria.

Nigeria – Amnesty International Report 2010

The police continued to commit with impunity a wide range of human rights violations, including unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, and enforced disappearances. Some people were targeted for failing to pay bribes. Several people were tortured to death in police detention. Prisoners were held in appalling conditions, many of whom had been awaiting trial for years.

The government intimidated and harassed human rights defenders and journalists. Violence against women remained endemic, and abuses against people suspected of same-sex relationships continued. Forced evictions affected thousands of people across the country. At least 58 people were sentenced to death, bringing to more than 870 the number of prisoners on death row. Many were sentenced after unfair trials. However, the government announced a “self-imposed moratorium” on executions.

NIgeria is bogus democracy-HRW

The United States and European Union are undermining human rights worldwide by letting states with dubious elections like Pakistan and Kenya pose as real democracies, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report. The group said Russia, Nigeria, Bahrain, Jordan and Thailand also had acted as if merely holding an election was enough to make them worthy of being called democratic.

North is poorest

A report revealed that, in absolute poverty, the North East, North West and North Central has retained the poorest geo-political zones in Nigeria since 1985. The index highlight states like the North East with the highest incidence of poverty ranging between 54.9% to 72.2% followed by North West and the North Central.Prof Mohammed Ladan, expert in security matters said this in his paper at a public lecture . on criminal justice system and the new security challenges in Nigeria in Abuja.

Nigeria’s 2007 election condemned as a farce

“You cannot use the result from half of the country to announce a new president,” said Innocent Chukwuma, chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group, a respected Nigerian observer mission. Max van den Berg, head of the EU team, said: “For now the assessment is outspokenly negative… I’m very concerned.”

9 Nigerian banks make World Bank list

The Nigerian banking industry is poised for greater productivity this fiscal year as nine banks made list of top 1,000 World Banks ranking and top 25 banks in Africa.

Why Investors Shun Nigeria – World Bank

The Country Director, World Bank in Nigeria, Onno Ruhl said that unstable power supply, lack of access to finance, high cost of financing businesses, high taxation, poor infrastructure, corruption and macro-economic environment are some of the reasons for poor investment in Nigeria.

UNEP on Ogoniland oil spill

The environmental restoration of Ogoniland could prove to be the world’s most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken if contaminated drinking water, land, creeks and important ecosystems such as mangroves are to be brought back to full, productive health.

A major new independent scientific assessment, carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), shows that pollution from over 50 years of oil operations in the region has penetrated further and deeper than many may have supposed.

Nigeria is 14th most failed state

DESCRIBED as only better than Somalia,

Sudan, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Central African, Iraq, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Pakistan, and Yemen, Nigeria has once again been ranked 14th most failed state in the world.

This is out of the 177 countries considered in the ranking by the Fund for Peace, an American independent non-profit research and educational organisation that works to prevent violent conflicts and promote sustainable security in the world. According to the 2011 result which is the seventh annual Failed States Index report, Nigeria maintains its same position as that of last year, except Kenya which is now more improved than Nigeria and moved out of its 2010 13th position, while Yemen who was a step better than Nigeria, now in twelfth position, a step poorer.

Nigeria was 15th in 2009, 18th in 2008, 17th in 2007, 22nd in 2006, 54th in 2005, which means that its 14th position assumes its worst stagnant status since 2007. The fall from 2005 to 2006 was sharp, while it has since then been maintaining the margin of one of the most failed in the world, having just a status of being better than just other eight countries in the world.

Assessment criteria

Considering the indicators used for the ranking, Nigeria’s worst scoring categories were in Group Grievance (9.6), Uneven Development (9.0), Legitimacy of the State (9.0), Public Services (9.0), Security Apparatus (9.1), and Factionalised Elites (9.5).

According to the summary analysis on Nigeria, “the country’s deep grievances along religious and communal lines have resulted in violence in the Niger Delta region, the Middle Belt, and the North. There is also endemic corruption and deep distrust of the state, inadequate public services, and security forces that often operate with impunity. The country is also subject to campaigns of violence by a number of militant and militia groups, including the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

“Finally, there are deep divisions among the political elites. In this year’s elections, there was controversy over whether the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner who took over after the death of Umaru Yar’Adau in May, should receive his party’s nomination. Traditionally, power has rotated between politicians from the North and South. President Jonathan was successful both in receiving the nomination and in winning re-election,” the report stated.

Ghana, however, had the best regional score in the Central and West Africa, while Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Guinea have the worst.However as Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria shows the worst performance amongst its oil producing states colleagues, as most of the troubled middle east countries and disaster affected nations are even more stable in ranking than the giant of Africa.

Uduma Kalu is the Literary Editor of The Guardian in Nigeria, a published poet, and the national publicity secretary of the Christopher Okigbo Society.