SPEAKING during a virtual interview with Arise TV on the 9th of August, 2022, Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan said that Nigeria is currently ranked as the third most insecure country in the world according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI).
Omokri, who claimed Nigeria was the fourth most insecure country under Jonathan’s regime, said the ranking has climbed up under the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari.
“Let us focus on the fact. Neither the APC nor the PDP is in the position to judge about security. There is one global body that has the authority and it is an international body- the Global Terrorism Index. The Global Terrorism Index has said under PDP government of the former president Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria was the 4th most insecure country in the world. However, under this administration, it is now worse, we are the 3rd most insecure country in the world. That would say a lot,” Omokri said.
Speaking further, Omokri claimed that Lagos state owes billions of dollars and that it accounts for 12.6% of Nigeria’s total debt.
READ: Misleading 2020 global terrorism ranking resurfaces online
“Bola Tinubu met a debt in Lagos of less than 100 million dollars. Right now, Lagos is so indebted. Lagos owes billions of dollars. As a matter of fact, Lagos alone owes 12.6% of Nigeria’s total debt. So, if you look at the IGR and compared it to the debt, that is a loss,” Omokri stated.
CLAIM 1
Nigeria is currently ranked as the third most insecure country in the world according to Global Terrorism Index (GTI).
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
The Global Terrorism Index by the Institute for Economics & Peace provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism over the last 14 years. The report ranks 163 countries (99.7 per cent of the world’s population) according to the impact of terrorism. The indicators include the number of terrorist incidents, fatalities, injuries and hostages.
The GTI report is produced using data from Terrorism Tracker and other sources. Terrorism Tracker provides event records on terrorist attacks since 1 January 2007. The dataset currently contains over 60,500 terrorist incidents from 2007 to 2021.
It summarises trends in terrorism over time and analyses its changing patterns in terms of geographic activity, methods of attack, organisations involved and the national economic and political context. The index has also been compared to a range of socio-economic indicators to determine the key factors most strongly associated with terrorism.
According to GTI report, Nigeria has maintained its 4th position as the country most impacted by terrorism worldwide since 2017. However, its latest ranking released on the 4th of March, 2022 shows that Nigeria dropped two places from the 4th to 6th position following successes recorded in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents.
The report indicated a decline in the number of terrorism-related deaths in Nigeria. It attributed this to the death of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, and the Nigerian government’s efforts to defeat the group.
ALSO READ: Claim that Nigeria ranked 3rd on Global Terrorism Index 2020 is MISLEADING
Buhari became Nigeria’s president on May 29th, 2015 after defeating former president Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election. From 2011 until then, Jonathan was Nigeria’s president. In 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 when Jonathan left the office, Nigeria was ranked 8th, 5th, 5th, 3rd, and 2nd positions respectively as the most impacted by terrorism worldwide. This contradicts Omokri’s claim that Nigeria was in the fourth position under Jonathan’s regime.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Nigeria is currently ranked as the 3rd most insecure country in the world according to the GTI is FALSE, as Nigeria is currently ranked as the 6th most insecure country in the world based on the 2022 Global Terrorism Index.
CLAIM 2
Lagos accounts for 12.6% of Nigeria’s total debt.
THE FINDINGS
Nigeria’s total debt is usually categorized into two, namely: Domestic debt and External debt.
According to the latest report by Nigeria’s Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria’s total public debt (federal and state governments) hit N41.6 trillion at the end of the first quarter (Q1) of 2022. The amount represents the domestic and external debt stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the thirty-six state governments, and the FCT.
Total external debt stood at N16.6 trillion (39.94%) while the total domestic debt stood at about N24.9 trillion (60.06%). The Federal Government only accounts for N20.1 trillion of the total domestic debts representing 48.42% while the states and the Federal Capital Territory account for N4.8 trillion which represents 11.64%.
Lagos State led the list of most indebted states in Nigeria with N780.48 billion domestic debt as of March 2022. When compared to the country’s total domestic debt (N24.9 trillion), Lagos only accounts for 3.1%.
Also, when compared to the Nigeria’s total public debt, Lagos accounts for only 1.9%.
THE VERDICT
The claim by Omokri that Lagos accounts for 12.6% of Nigeria’s total debt is FALSE; findings show that the figure is lower.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
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