A former secretary general of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku, said the current state of affairs in Nigeria was pushing the country to the brink of disaster.

Mr Anyaoku said this at the 10th edition of the Emeka Anyaoku Lecture Series on Good Governance, organised in his honour in Awka on Thursday.

The former diplomat, who hails from Obosi, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, said he had to break his over 10 years resolve to be away from public glare because Nigeria was fast drifting away from the dreams of her founding fathers.

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“Developments in this country are pushing Nigeria to the brink of national disaster,” he said.

Mr Anyaoku, 88, decried the degeneration of the country into “international irrelevance” and the slide into the ranks of poverty-stricken nations.

He said the level of deterioration had robbed Nigeria of the desired respect and the much needed sense of belonging by her citizens. He condemned the rise in cases of kidnapping and the acts of bandits who, he said, must be called what they are, “terrorists, and nothing more”.