Despite being resource-rich and having the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria has more people living in poverty than any other country on earth.
The problem is corruption. In 2019, Transparency International ranked Nigeria at 146 of 180, confirming it as one of the most corrupt nations on earth.
The issue imperilling Nigerian Christians is that massive corruption at the highest levels of Government and Defence is prolonging the conflict with Boko Haram. Government and military elites are exploiting the conflict as a means of enriching themselves. Investigations into the Armsgate scandal revealed massive fraud in military procurement, whereby government funds have been secured on the basis of fake contracts for resources which were never delivered – “everything from food and ammunition to firearms, helicopters and Alpha jets, totalling as much as US$15 billion”.
Recommended:
Corruption is Killing Nigerian Christians,
By Elizabeth Kendal, 19 August 2020
Nigeria’s Fraudulent Election: Will Things Fall Apart?
By Elizabeth Kendal, 28 May 2019.
Corruption explains why Nigerian soldiers are deployed into conflict zones with insufficient rations and malfunctioning weapons, and why those who survive return defeated and demoralised. Corruption explains why insecurity has escalated to crisis levels and why Boko Haram and its offshoots have not been defeated but instead have grown stronger. Corruption explains why a catastrophic Christian crisis involving ethnic cleansing and genocide persists throughout Nigeria’s North and Middle Belt, bringing untold suffering to multitudes. It is a Christian crisis of monumental proportions.
Recommended:
Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide? New APPG Report Launched. 15 June 2020
By the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (UK)
As violence and lawlessness spin out control, Nigeria is in danger of becoming a failed state or worse, of tearing apart by way of catastrophic civil war reminiscent of the Nigerian Civil War / Biafra War of 1967 –1970.
Additional news source specialising in Nigeria:
International Committee on Nigeria, https://iconhelp.org/
Silent Slaughter website: https://www.silentslaughternigeria.com/ (includes an incidence tracker)
