A Washington D.C.-based non-profit, non-governmental research and educational institution, the Fund for Peace, has ranked Nigeria as one of the world’s most unstable countries.
The institution, in its 12th annual Fragile States Index, FSI, released on wednesday, June 29,ranked Nigeria alongside war-torn Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraqi, Guinea, Pakistan, Burundi and Zimbabwe.
It stated that the situation in Nigeria deteriorated in 2015 when compared with 2014.Fund for Peace cited the economic downturn occasioned by the fall in oil price and the activities of Boko Haram in the North-eastern part of Nigeria for classifying Nigeria among countries where peace deteriorated in 2015.
Nigeria was also placed among countries classified as “high alert” meaning that the situation in Nigeria had worsened compared to the previous year.
This category is just one level shy of the “very high alert” which comprises countries like Syria, Somalia, Central Africa Republic, Congo Democratic Republic, Yemen, Chad, Sudan and South Sudan where peace had totally collapsed.
The 2016 FSI, the 12th edition of the annual index, comprises data collected between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015 — thus certain well-publicised events that have occurred since January 1, 2016 are not covered by the 2016 index.
The index is an annual ranking of 178 nations based on their levels of stability and the pressures they face. The index is based on the Fund for Peace’s proprietary Conflict Assessment System Tool (CAST) analytical platform. Based on comprehensive social science methodology, data from three primary sources are triangulated and subjected to critical review to obtain final scores for the FSI.
