No. I have lived in Nigeria for a long time Nigeria isn't a failed state. But it may become one. And the only ones who can be held responsible for this arent the Nigerian politicians but the nigerian people themselves. When I was living in Nigeria,a horrible man called sani abacha was the millitary dictator. He looted millions and billions but remained unchallenged till his very necessary death. It seemed to me that most of the Nigerians lacked courage and were spineless and always in “what can we do?” mode. Nation is made of people. If they can't stand up for themselves no one can help them . If they do no one can stop them. The abacha regime brutally hanged Ken sarowiwa and his associates leading to foreign criticisms,sanctions and even suspension from Commonwealth. But what did the Nigerian people do? Absolutely nothing. They didn't have the courage to come out of their homes in huge numbers and pull the oppressive regime down. Yes ,some might have died,many would have been shot and injured but how many could they shoot? Ultimately abacha would have been pulled down. But Nigerians weren't that concerned . Again they were in “what can we do?” Mode. If people would have stood up that day Nigeria would have been different today. As a member of OPEC Nigeria had a huge petrol crisis, millitary rulers were siphoning money left and right but what did the people do? Absolutely nothing. Nigeria had lost the capability to make anything indeginous and everything was imported. There were huge power cuts and generators were a necessity in every house. But,still I'd say that at that point of time in the mid 90s Nigeria was way better economically,infrasructurally and by human development index than my home country India. India at that time had hit rock bottom. Even China was suffering the same fate as India. Most people in India lived in either extreme poverty or in lower middle class bracket. Chips and cold drinks were a luxury to us in those days. As a kid when I came to Nigeria I was surprised to see that people had their own cars and we could afford so much that we couldn't afford in India. Home air-conditioning was a totally new concept for me. My family left Nigeria in 1998. And this is when things started to change in India. The Congress party which had been ruling India for 50 years were voted out and a new government was sworn in which was again voted out after it's 5 years term. It became clear that if you don't perform you're out of power. The public couldn't be taken for granted . Wherever injustice occurred people's movements occurred. Nobody would compromise. And this is the time India started developing. And this huge economic growth still continues. Today India is the fastest growing economy in the world at a GDP growth rate of 7% average. The total economy is around $3 trillion dollars today (5th largest in the world)and per capita income has increased by 9 folds since then. Only China could do better than India during this period. By 2025 India is poised to become the third largest economy after China and USA . Yes,poverty and problems still exist but the quality of life of indians has increased unbelievably. Almost 50% of the population belongs to the rich,uppper middle class and middle class category,30% belongs to lower class and 20% belong to poor bracket. Economic growth can be estimated by the data that India now has 131 billionaires including Asia's richest man. Rail,air,urban transportation like metro railways,road network is excellent. India has more number of Internet users than the United States and just behind China. In Mobile Internet users India ranks first. People would think what's the big deal? But it's very impressive considering 80% of indians were in poor category in 90s and India has a humongous population of 1.3 billion and has always been a democracy unlike China. Now, India is developing at a rapid pace and is ahead of even china in growth. Manufacturing and service sectors are booming. Foreign reserves are at an all time high amounting to almost $500 billion which in the 90s had come down to $1 million and the economy was about to collapse. Now,let's look at Nigeria. What has changed? Nothing. Yes , democracy has prevailed but 2 of the last 4 president's were previous millitary dictators! Things became worse. Nigeria isn't capable of even providing 24 hour electricity to even half of it's people forget other manufacturing and development. Research and development practically doesn't exist. Medical healthcare is in dismal ( this an area where India has shown excellence and is today famous for medical tourism from other countries including it's neighbors and even Nigeria) . I'll never know how an oil producing nation can have so many people living in extreme poverty. Each and everyone blames the politicians. But who chooses these politicians? Nigerians . And these politicians are good for nothing. They loot the country for 5 years and leave while Nigerians are still in “what can we do ?”mode. Terrorist groups like Boko Haram and niger Delta region have become additional headaches if other problems weren't enough. Foreigners (including Lebanese and indians) are doing business in Nigeria and giving nothing back to Nigeria. Nigerians are paying high prices for food,clothes, medicine , mobile tarrifs and every other necessity including petrol!!! This is just sad. To sum up Nigerian development and growth has been stagnant all these years. The country still heavily depends on imports and can literally manufacture almost nothing. And it's not the politicians. It's the people of Nigeria that are at fault. Another thing is Nigeria is divided too much into tribes like hausa ,Yoruba and ibo and they all are in power struggle. They don't have good relations among themselves. So the national identity and patriotism is missing. India inspite of having way more languages,cultures and religions than Nigeria stands United as a nation. So, if you don't make progress decade after decade you are bound to become a failed state. Nigeria may not have reached that stage but like this it will reach the failed state stage soon. And that's a sad thing for me as I spent much of my childhood in Nigeria and love the country and consider it my second home. So , Nigerian people please stand for your rights and what is right. Raise your voices and move because only dead bodies lay still even when they are subjected to any torture.

Source : https://www.quora.com/Is-Nigeria-a-failed-state