Nigeria is now exhibiting the full symptoms of a failing state in the making and in all reality. These signs are clearly visible all over the 36 federating states of Nigeria and cutting across all the geopolitical zones of this nation of about 160 million citizens and residents .
A failing state is synonymous with the following symptoms:(i) The central government is too weak and has failed in its primary responsibility to guarantee the national security for the life and the properties of Nigerian citizens and residents. Lawlessness and the rule of brutality reign supreme in the nation today (hired killings, political assassinations, numerous unsolved murders, ritual killings and kidnappings for ransoms).
(ii) The federal government headed by President Jonathan Goodluck has lost its partial sovereignty over the certain territories of Nigeria to terrorists, militant groups and warlords (Niger-Delta region to the oil militant groups and the North Eastern Nigeria to Boko Haram).
(iii) The national economy is failing, the nation's foreign debt profile is rising, the nation's foreign reserves are almost in red, hyper-inflation of goods and services control the national economy, Nigerians' economic and purchasing power are heavily reduced, the value of the nation's currency is gradually depreciating against international currencies, foreign investments are not visible in the land, unemployment has risen above 47% amongst youths, poverty rate has hit over 90%, the nation's manpower needs are affected by brain drain and majority of the over five million Nigerians in diaspora are mainly economic refugees.
(iv) The government has failed to provide the citizens with their basic social services, such as electricity, water, good roads and 21st century health care system. (v) The nation's educational systems and our national infrastructures are too old, outdated, obsolete, inadequate and collapsing. (vi) Life expectancy is falling alongside with human development indices that determine the quality of life and the standard of living.
In the final conclusion:what is the way forward for the Nigerian nation today? The government of Jonathan Goodluck should immediately convene a National Sovereign Conference of all ethnic nationalities and religious groups in Nigeria to decide the future of this union of many nations in one.
These are the two different political possibilities and outcomes of a Sovereign National Conference if it is held in Nigeria:(i) A confederacy system of government could be adopted that will break Nigeria into six or more geopolitical regions that are political and economically autonomous and with a weak central government in Abuja. (ii) Secession of those geopolitical zones in Nigeria into independent nations similar to what was done to the former nations of Sudan in 2011 and USSR in 1990s
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