By Dr. Peregrino Brimah

Below is a compilation of just a few indices in which Nigeria ranks proudly at the bottom 10 in the entire world:

#8 – General Corruption: Nigeria is 8th most corrupt nation in the world according to Transparency International 2013 Global Corruption Barometer.

#4 – Police corruption: Nigeria ranked 4th highest in the world for perceiving the police as corrupt, according to the same Transparency survey.

#1 – Being born: The Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU ranked Nigeria the worst place to be born in 2013.

#4 – Population in Slavery: Nigeria with up to 740,000 in slave bondage ranks 4th in the world in modern slave nations, according to the just released Global Slavery Index. Fitting in after Pakistan.

#1 –High Sea Piracy: As the world records lower global stats, thanks to Nigeria, West Africa is now the world piracy capital. According to the International Maritime Bureau reported Nigeria had 11 of 66 global incidents for the first quarter of 2013. 966 sailors were attacked last year off West African coasts.

#9 – Maternal mortality: According to World Bank data, Nigeria ranks 9th worst in the world with 630 deaths per 100,000 from 10 years data collected from 1990-2010.

#2 –Software Piracy: The 2011 Global Software Piracy Study conducted by Business Software Alliance ranked Nigeria 2nd in the world, with software piracy costing the nation a whopping $251m (N39.4bn).

#1 – Exam Malpractice: Director General National Orientation Agency (NOA) Mr. Mike Omeri whose agency partners with Exam Ethics Marshals International, in 2012 ranked Nigeria #1 in the World Exam Malpractice Index.

#11 – Good Governance: Nigeria ranked 4th worst in West Africa, 13th of 16, in Safety & Rule of Law, Participation & Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity, and Human Development, in the 2013 Ibrahim Index of African Governance. Nigeria ranked 41st out of the 52 countries listed overall.

#1 – Bribe: Nigeria ranks highest for Bribe in the world on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) interactive map, online at- fcpamap.com

#1 – VVF: According to United States Agency for International Development, USAID, Nigeria has the highest prevalence of Vesico-Vaginal Fistula in the world, with over 200,000 patients and an annual incidence at 20,000. That is 40% of the global cases in Nigeria alone.

#7 – Terrorism: Global Terrorism Index (GTI) ranks Nigeria the 7th worst in the world for terrorism over the last 10 years, according to its 2012 assessment.

#2 – Road Traffic Accidents (RTA): In 2012, Nigeria ranked second highest in road traffic accident (RTA) fatalities among the 193 countries in the world according to the Minister of Health.

#1 – Aviation Accidents for 2012: In 2012 with over 153 onboard deaths and more on the ground, in the Dana Air Boeing MD83 airline accident, Nigeria had the world’s worst aviation accident.

#4 – Worst City: Despite aggressive transformation by the Lagos government, the EIU in its 2013 annual survey of 140 major metropolises ranked Lagos the 4th worst city in the entire world.

#7 – Growing Old: Global AgeWatch Index 2013 ranking of 91 countries, put Nigeria at #85; the seventh worst country to grow old in. Nigeria in the report ranked third lowest for income security.

#2 – HIV/AIDS: With an estimated 3.4 million living with the virus, the National Action Committee on Aids (NACA) put the nation as the second worst in the world.

#2 – Electricity: Nigeria is ranked by the World Bank as the 2nd worst in the world in power (electricity) supply. According to the report, 82.4 million Nigerians, half the nation lived without power. India is #1.

#1 – Kidnapping: In the first half of 2013, Nigeria had the most kidnapping attempts of any nation in the world, according to NYA International organization of Crises prevention and response. Recording 26%, over a quarter of all incidents. Mexico was second with 10% and Pakistan 3rd with 7%.

#1 – Oil Spills Worldwide: From Vanguard on November 14, 2012: Nigeria has highest oil spills in the world – Senate; the nation records the highest number of oil spill incidences among oil producing countries with no penalty regime attached to such oil spills.

#4 – Oil Spillage Outages: Vanguard reported on October 8th, 2013, that with more than 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil being lost to pipeline vandalism, Nigeria ranks 4th worst in the world in oil spillage outages, according to Deutsche Bank and other shipping and industry estimates. Libya, Syria, Iran and lead Nigeria in outages for obvious reasons including recent wars and US sanctions at Iran.

But there is a glimmer of hope in it all. Nigeria actually does take the first position in something great:

#1 – Highest Paid Legislators: The Economist magazine revealed that Nigerian federal legislators are the highest paid in the world with an annual basic salary of $189,500 (N30.6 m).

With the current state and direction of both the government and the people of Nigeria—Africa’s largest nation and the world’s most populated black country—the nation is not headed for improvement on these shameful rankings, but more predictably to slide further down the ladder into the darkest crevices of the black hole of Calcutta.

The question is: To act or to give-up? And the follow-up question is: If we the people decide to do something, what should and can we do?

Dr. Peregrino Brimah

Wrong,very wrong,we are in the top in the top 40 in football