“Peacefulness deteriorated across all three GPI domains over the past year, with the largest deterioration occurring in the Ongoing Conflict domain,” as compiled from the 2018 GPI report.
Meanwhile, under the on-going domestic and international conflict domain, Nigeria scored 153 out of the 163 countries that appeared in this class from most peaceful to least peaceful , outperforming just 10 countries.
The security challenges facing Nigeria has made the country one of the least peaceful in the world, the 2017 figures from Global Peace Index (GPI) published recently has shown.
As compiled from the twelfth edition of the GPI report, which ranks 163 independent countries and territories according to their level of peacefulness, Africa’s largest economy came at the bottom red occupying 148th position making it the 16th most violent country in the world.
This is compared to its African peers; South Africa at 125th position, with 2.328 score, Kenya at 123 spot with 2.354 score while Nigeria reported a score of 2.873.
Meanwhile the GPI scale sees countries with 1-1.8 as most peaceful while those with 3-4.2 as the least peaceful.
In the Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) region, Nigeria was more peaceful than only four countries in 2017, as it occupied the 5th most violent position in the region.
The most peaceful countries in the region were; Mauritius with a score of 1.548 making it the 20th most peaceful in the world, Botswana with 1.659 score followed, and it also ranked 29 in the world.
Sierra Leone, Madagascar and Ghana made the top five list with 1.74, 1.766 and 1.772 scores respectively and they also ranked 35, 38 and 41 in the world respectively.
“Of the 14 West African nations, the overall scores of only two – Niger and Nigeria – deteriorated last year. There were substantial sub-regional improvements in the domain of Safety and Security, including Liberia by eight per cent, the Gambia by 5.9 per cent, and Ghana by 5.5 percent,” GPI said in the report.
While the most violent countries in the sub-Sahara Africa region for the year under review were; Central African Republic with a score of 3.236 and a world rank of 155, followed by Democratic Republic of Congo with 3.251 score and 156 world position. Somalia and South Sudan occupied the region’s bottom position with scores of 3.367 and 3.508 and world positions of 159 and 161 respectively.
Meanwhile, the results of the 2018 GPI report showed that the global level of peace deteriorated by 0.27 per cent in the last year, making it the fourth successive year of deteriorations, of which Ninety-two countries deteriorated, while 71 countries improved.
“The 2018 GPI reveals a world in which the tensions, conflicts, and crises that emerged in the past decade remain unresolved, especially in the Middle East, resulting in this gradual, sustained fall in peacefulness. Underlying the fall in peacefulness, six of the nine regions in the world deteriorated in the last year,” the report cited.
A further analysis of the figures reveals that Europe, which has been the world’s most peaceful region since the inception of the index, deteriorated in peacefulness for the third straight year, due to increased political instability, impact of terrorism and perceptions of criminality.
“Peacefulness deteriorated across all three GPI domains over the past year, with the largest deterioration occurring in the Ongoing Conflict domain,” as compiled from the 2018 GPI report.
Meanwhile, under the on-going domestic and international conflict domain, Nigeria scored 153 out of the 163 countries that appeared in this class from most peaceful to least peaceful , outperforming just 10 countries.
For Societal safety and security domain, out of 163 countries, Nigeria was at 147 spot, this means the country was more peaceful than 16 countries in the category.
While for militarisation domain, Africa’s largest economy was at 98 spot out of the 163 countries, thereby doing better than 65 countries all for the year 2017.
The report however cited that, for the past ten years, countries with the largest improvements in peace recorded seven times higher per capita GDP growth than those that deteriorated the most.
“The global economy would be US$13.87 trillion larger than its current level if low peace countries achieved GDP growth equivalent to highly peaceful countries,” the report disclosed.
Meanwhile, the economic impact of violence in Nigeria for the year 2017 amounted to $150.2billion (PPP) while the violence cost Africa’s largest economy a whopping $121.1billion (PPP) for the same year under review and this was 11 percent of the country’s GDP (PPP) in the period. The GPI also disclosed that it was $618.7 million (PPP) per capital.
The global economic impact of violence was $14.76 trillion PPP in 2017, equivalent to 12.4 per cent of global GDP, or $1,988 per person.
“The economic impact of violence has increased by 16 per cent since 2012, corresponding with the start of the Syrian war and rising violence in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq incurred the largest economic cost of violence as a percentage of their GDP at 68, 63 and 51 per cent of GDP, respectively.”
The economic cost of violence as explained by GPI is the economic impact of violence including the direct and indirect costs of violence as well as an economic multiplier applied to the direct costs. The economic cost of violence includes only the direct and indirect costs. Per capita and percentage-of-GDP results are calculated using the economic cost of violence.
The countries that were however rated as the most peaceful includes- Iceland with 1.096 score, New Zealand, Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Czech Republic , Canada, and Singapore with scores of 1.192, 1.274, 1.318, 1.353, 1.372, 1.381, 1.38 and 1.391 respectively.
While those that are most violent in the world in the year 2017 were; Turkey, North Korea, Pakistan, Ukraine, Sudan, Russia, Central African Rep, Dem. Rep Congo, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and syria with 3.155, 3.236, 3.251, 3.262, 3.305, 3.367, 3.425, 3.508, 3.585 and 3.6 respectively.
