Nigeria experiencing ‘graveyard peace’ – Fani-Kayode reacts to Global Terror Index rating

The former minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, on Friday declared that Nigeria was experiencing the “peace of the graveyard”.

Fani-Kayode said this in response to the Global Terror Index which ranked Nigeria as the third most terrorized country in the world.

In a tweet, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain wrote: “How any right-thinking person can still claim that Nigeria is safe and secure after the International Global Terror Index has just announced that we are the “third most terrorized country in the world” really baffles me.

“What we are experiencing is the peace of the graveyard.”

The Global Terrorism Index, had on Wednesday, released its 2018 ranking wherein Nigeria maintained third position.

According to the report, Nigeria was behind war-ravaged countries like Iraq, Afghanistan.

The report said deaths from terrorism in Nigeria fell to 1,532 in 2017, a decrease of 16 per cent from the prior year.

There were 63 per cent and 34 per cent drop in deaths in the country in 2016 and 2015 respectively, according to the report.

The report reads, “When compared to the peak of terrorist deaths in 2014, the largest falls in the number of deaths occurred in Iraq, Nigeria, and Pakistan, with falls of 6,466, 5,950, and 912 deaths respectively.

“This highlights the effectiveness of the counter-insurgency operations undertaken in Nigeria and its neighbours, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad,” the report said, adding that the world has also experienced a drop in deaths from terrorism in 2017.”

The GTI, while analyzing global trends in terrorism in 2017, described the reduction in deaths in Nigeria and Iraq “the most dramatic”.

Boko Haram attacks, the report said, have substantially reduced in Chad and other neighbouring countries; and Al-Shabaab, in 2017 overtook Boko Haram as the deadliest terror group in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The GTI report raised concern over the killings by herdsmen, saying terrorism was shifting from Nigeria’s North-east region to the country’s Middle-Belt.

“In Nigeria in 2018, there has been a dramatic increase in violence involving Fulani extremists even as deaths committed by Boko Haram are falling.

“In 2018 alone, deaths committed by nomadic Fulani herders are estimated to be six times greater than the number committed by Boko Haram.

“In 2017, 327 terrorism deaths across Nigeria and Mali were reportedly committed by Fulani extremists, along with 2,501 additional deaths in the three years prior with the vast majority of these deaths being civilians.

“While deaths (killings) committed by Fulani extremists decreased following the peak of 1,169 deaths in 2014, violence from the group in 2018 is expected to surpass that peak. Nearly 1,700 violent deaths have been attributed to the Fulani Ethnic Militia from January to September 2018. An estimated 89 per cent of those killed were civilians,” the report added.