NIGERIA AT A CROSSROADS

WITH DOMESTIC UNREST AND LIVING STANDARDS HIT BY ECONOMIC REFORMS, THE CITIZENS OF AFRICA'S POWERHOUSE NATION ARE WAITING TO SEE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

- Jennifer H. Cunningham AND Matthew Tostevin

NIGERIA'S SECURITY CZAR PULLED A mobile phone from his white gown to show a video of a man with his head wrapped in a full turban.

Addressing the camera somewhere in the scrubby badlands of northern Nigeria, the figure made a statement from behind mirrored goggles.

"This is one of the biggest bandits," National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu told Newsweek. "And he wants to stop fighting." Any respite from Nigeria's multiple mini-wars is a welcome relief to the giant African country, whose population of 220 million is forecast to pass that of the United States in little over a generation.

By then it could become the world's second biggest democracy after India's, but only if it can survive some of the greatest challenges of its existence. It is beset by Islamist insurgents, separatist movements, kidnapping and robbery.

Attempts at economic reform, along with capital flight exacerbated by cryptocurrency transfers, have led to a tumbling currency and soaring inflation in a nation that was already home to more of the world's extreme poor than all bar one country.

Nigeria sits near the bottom of international corruption leagues and has earned a reputation as a home to scammers who operate globally to trick Americans and others of their savings.

If the world's biggest Black nation can fulfill the potential it has long been credited with, it could become a driving force for the continent and beyond. American companies are in the forefront of those eager to invest. Nigerian authors, musicians, artists, businesspeople and global public officials have given the world a taste of its talents.

But failure and fragmentation could spell a disaster of vast scale, spilling conflict across Africa and sending an even larger human wave fleeing to seek safety and new lives in Europe and worldwide.