The former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Obadaiah Mailafia, has, again, raised the alarm that the nation was drifting towards a failed state, and may soon become ungovernable to the ruling class, if the drift was unchecked.
Mailafia also accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s government of pushing for the Islamisation and Fulanisation of the country.
He spoke during a symposium organized by the Forum for Good Governance of the Towards Revival for All Nations (TRANS 21) at the Reconciliation House in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
Speaking on the theme, ‘The Role of the Church in Nation Building’, Mailafia, said that Nigeria can no longer be described as a nation due to the fact that concentration of power was not with the government alone but now also in the hands of some other power blocs.
“Nigeria has been designated as a failed state. We may not say it is a failed state but it is certainly exhibiting the features of a failing state in terms of the kind of violence we are seeing, widespread insecurity, and terrorism, the abuse of humanity, criminality, rape, killing, maiming and destruction.
“We are a failing state, and the solution is nothing other than the need to give birth to a new Nigeria.
“Rival groups control territory. Boko Haram is in control of over half of Niger State, and if they successfully take over Niger, Abuja will be a walkover.
“Government cannot provide security for the people. Nowhere is safe in the country. The forests have been taken over by foreign invaders.
“The economy is collapsing. There is the collapse of the institution. Police, university’s standards are low. Corruption has taken over in the country. What else do we need to say Nigeria is a failed state?”
“In the past, people could ignore that because Olusegun Obasanjo was a fair-minded man and he was a patriot. Umaru Yar’Adua of blessed memory was a fair-minded man and a patriot. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was a fair-minded man and he was a patriot.
“So, people could afford to live with a fraudulent constitution but now today, we are seeing that a fraudulent constitution is in the hands of people who have hidden agendas, who hate our country, who are beholders to Niger Republic, Chad and other foreign countries.”
According to him, “Nigeria has fallen from the grace being the most terrorised nation and the poverty capital of the world after India and Afghanistan.
“Nigeria parades about 90million people who are destitute poor with 50 per cent of the figure from the North, particularly the North-East and West geopolitical zones”.
He said Borno, Zamfara and Yobe accounted for 70 per cent of the figure.
With 20million of children out of school and drug abuse of 80 per cent in Kano State alone, Mailafia said that the situation in the North was getting out of hand.
He lamented that “the official unemployment rate in Nigeria is 33 per cent with youth forming 40 per cent of the figure.
On the Islamisation and Fulanisation of the country, Mailafia said that, “the agenda is ongoing; Islamisation and Fulanisaion of Nigeria. The kind of Islam that is coming from Sahara is dangerous. They want to take over your land and enslave you. Christians must rise to protect it”.
He said about “two million Nigerians have been killed silently in Nigeria in the last few years with the government unable to tackle the menace of Fulani herdsmen, terrorists and bandits.
“In the North-East alone, more than 3,000 churches have been destroyed, more than 400 priests and pastors have been killed. And there is a pattern that is reserved only for Christians, and that is beheading.
“Last year, the CAN chairman of Adamawa was beheaded, even after a ransom was paid. We have been told that the so call bandits, who should not be called bandits because bandits do not bring down military aircraft.
“No bandit has the capacity to bring down military aircraft. No bandit has the power to attack Nigeria Defence Academy, which is the premier institution for the training of armed forces.
“No bandit has the capacity to do that, only terrorists have the capacity to do that.
Mailafia said that “We are being told that these terrorists are part of the insurgency because they did these kidnappings to raise money in order to fund the insurgency.”
Speaking on the fall in the exchange rate of the naira, the financial expert said that “the continued dip of the naira in the foreign exchange market was due to the bad policies of government and the tensions across to the country.
“If we continue the bad policies we are doing and all these geopolitical tensions we are tolerating, it is going to affect the value of the naira and the naira will continue to go down and down into a bottomless pit.
According to him, “This is just a law of science and of economics. If we do the right thing, then we can reverse the trend and the naira will start improving. It is not quantum physics; it is straightforward demand and supply, inflation and natural expectation.”
Mailafia also lamented that the country has fallen from grace by being the most terrorised nation and the poverty capital of the world after India and Afghanistan.