Thread by @Chxta

In my column in today's @BusinessDayNg, I attempt to show how #Nigeria's many insecurity issues have an economic cost. bit.ly/2XuLPaW

Look at it this way, #BokoHaram started at about the time the Niger Delta militancy were getting their amnesty.

A decade after, we are still paying amnesty to creek boys, and #Nigeria’s numerous internal security crises have intensified.

In pretty much all geopolitical zones of the country we are seeing rising violence, often challenging the Nigerian state for territorial control.

Kidnap for ransom is now a full business venture aided by lots of ungoverned spaces. bit.ly/3i9MqH0

Sambisa Forest is a good example of how this violence affects the economy...

Now used as one of #BokoHaram’s key staging areas, the British colonial administration had gazetted Sambisa as a reserve in 1958, making it one of the conservation legacies bequeathed to the Nigerian state by the colonial government.

In 1977, Sambisa was re-gazetted as a National Game Reserve for the preservation of rare animals and also as a way of generating funds from tourism.

The forest is/was home to a variety of wild animals and 62 different species of birds.

Now, Sambisa, is home to troops from the MNJTF from #Nigeria, #Chad, #Niger & #Cameroun, as well as #BokoHaram.

@Allianz recently showed that 45% of global piracy in Q1 2020 occurred in the Gulf of Guinea with 47 incidents, up from 38 in 2019. bit.ly/33CGqCD

These figures are a totally different discussion about the impact of violence in oil-producing areas that somehow affect oil production, leading #Nigeria to lose about 400k barrels of oil to crude oil theft.

In 2019, the country lost about ₦1 trillion to oil theft.

In a country squeezed for revenue thus leading to questionable policies such as stamp duty on rent or an anti-business policy to make @NipostNgn a competitor to, as well as a regulator in logistics, we haven't taken into account how rising levels of violence affects our image.

What affects our image, in turn, affects the economy.

#Nigeria has an image problem.

@StateDept’s travel advisory for 2019 totally advises its citizens against travelling to at least 24 out of 36 states in Nigeria. bit.ly/3k8eFaF

When @USinNigeria announced the suspension of interview waivers for visa renewals for applicants in #Nigeria, it was not just because Nigerians overstay their visa.

It was also that non-Nigerians were using Nigerian passports to apply for US visas, a security threat to the US.

There are a lot of things #Nigeria needs to fix, but if it would seek to command respect globally, it must fix its internal security apparatus.

Still on the issue of insecurity, y'all should read @MacHarryCI tell the story of how a complete breakdown in the riverine areas of Delta shows how severely under-policed we are...