Following the increasing spread of the dreaded Coronavirus pandemic, Nigeria is said to risk implosion and possibly collapse, should the world powers do not move fast before it was too late.
This was the submission of popular CNN host, Fareed Zakaria, on Monday.
He also identified Iraq as another country that faces such implosion as Nigeria if urgent steps were not immediately taken to curb the spread of the pandemic in the two countries.
Zakaria, on Monday, in a video, said these countries were still in the early stages of what was going to become a series of cascading crises.
He added that if the major powers in the world do not cooperate and manage these problems together, countries like Nigeria who depends on oil revenue for its economy will fall.
Said he, “If countries like Iraq and Nigeria explode, the cost in refugees, disease and terrorism would all make us wish we had tried harder to manage their fall. We need to wrap our minds around the painful truth,” he warned.
The CNN host, who admitted that some developing countries like Nigeria have recorded lesser cases of Coronavirus so far, added that there was the tendency they could fall harder to the disease soon.
Zakariah added that if this happens, the cost in refugees, disease and terrorism would lead to regrets in major power countries.
He warned that unless the hot weather tampers with the virus, Nigeria and other third world countries would be hit hard.
“We are in the early stages of what is going to become a series of cascading crises, and we will not be able to get back to anything resembling normal life unless the major powers in the world can find some way to cooperate.
“Everyone is in the early stages of what is going to be a series of cascading crises throughout the world and we would not be able to get back to anything resembling normal life unless the major powers in the world find a way to cooperate and manage these problems together.
“The first phase has been the health care crisis in the world’s major economies. The next phase is the economic paralysis, the magnitude we are only just beginning to comprehend.
“Next comes the explosions in the developing world. So far, the number of infected have been low in countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, probably because they are less linked in trade and travel than the advanced world.
“In addition, these countries have tested very few people which is key to keeping their numbers deficiently low. But unless we get lucky and it turns out that heat does temper the virus, these countries will all get hit and hard.
“And then, there are the oil states. Even if the quarrel between Saudi Arabia and Russia gets resolved, at this point, the demand for oil has collapsed and will not soon recover.
“Consider what that means for countries like Libya, Nigeria, Iran, Iraq and Venezuela, where oil revenue makes up the vast majority of government revenue.
“Expect political turmoil, refugees, revolutions, crackdowns, maybe terrorism. All of these might happen on a scale we haven’t seen for decades.”
