Nigeria not failed nation, says ex-Delta Assembly speaker

Former Delta State House of Assembly speaker, Victor Ochei, has said Nigeria cannot be described as a failed state despite the security challenges.

He said the Federal Government was working assiduously to tackle such challenges.

Ochei, who is also the executive director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage in the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, said every nation, across the world, has its peculiar security challenges, adding that the issue of kidnapping, insurgency and armed robbery did not emanate from the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The former lawmaker, who was speaking in Asaba with newsmen, said a country can only be described as a failed one when the legal tender is worthless and with complete breakdown of law and order, adding that such was not the case in Nigeria.

While accepting that more needed to be done in tackling insecurity in the country, Ochei said the Buhari administration has recorded a lot of successes in the fight against insurgency and other criminal activities across the country and should be encouraged to do more.

On the consistent call by some Nigerians for the replacement of the service chiefs, Ochei said he was in support of injecting new bloods into the system and recommended that they employ new strategies in the fight against the bandits and other criminal elements in the country that have been terrorising the citizens.