Mamdani: Nigeria is not a Failed State

I think something is wrong with this idea of a failed state. I am a teacher, and I know that a teacher who comes into the classroom, looks at his students and say to them that they are failed students, is a failed teacher. What is a failed state? It is a state that cannot maintain order; so, it doesn't take anybody bright to know that there is no order where there is fighting. But that is not the point. The point is not to tell us which is a failed state or which is not a failed state, thus repeating and telling us what we know. The point is to tell us why there is no order in the place; what is the historical process that brought us to this destination? What is the cause? Saying it is a failed state doesn't give you a cause; it gives you a stigma, and blames the patient. That is the problem with the failed state notion; it is like a teacher telling his student that he (the student) is not good. What happened in the classroom? Something must have happened, something must have gone wrong. So, we should be thinking of that history, which brought us to the point where the centre is so weak that we cannot create order. We also need to understand the tendencies that pull the political system apart are so strong, so that we can think of an antidote. Most of these things (like the failed state verdict) are given as judgment from a height, which are meant to stigmatize.