A failed state? Fears grow for the future of Nigeria's fragile democracy

A series of overlapping security, political and economic crises has left Nigeria facing its worst instability since the end of the Biafran war in 1970.

- Peter Beaumont

With experts warning that large parts of the country are in effect becoming ungovernable, fears that the conflicts in Africa's most populous state were bleeding over its borders were underlined last week by claims that armed Igbo secessionists in the country's south-east were now allies with militants fighting for an independent state in the anglophone region of neighbouring Cameroon.

The mounting insecurity from banditry in the north-west, jihadist groups such as Boko Haram in the north-east, violent conflict between farmers and pastoralists across large swathes of Nigeria's “middle belt”, and Igbo secessionists in the southeast calling for an independent Biafra once again, is driving a brain drain of young Nigerians. It has also seen the oil multinational Shell announce it is planning to leave the country because of insecurity, theft and sabotage.

Among recent prominent victims of the lethal violence was Dr Chike Akunyili, a prominent physician in Nigeria's southern state of Anambra, who was ambushed as he returned from a lecture to commemorate the life of his wife, Dora, who had been the head of the country's national food and drug agency.