By Leshi Adebayo
In terms of the level of peacefulness, Nigeria has moved up 3 places from its 146th ranking in 2021 to 143rd out of 163 independent nations and territories globally in the latest Global Peace Index for 2022.
According to the index, 37 African countries including Mauritius (28th), Ghana (40), other are ahead of Nigeria in the rankings.
On the other hand, Mali (150th); Libya (151th); Burkina Faso (146th); Democratic Republic of Congo (158th); the Central African Republic (155th); Ethiopia (149th); Sudan (154th); Somalia (156th); South Sudan (159th) were among the least ranked African countries.
In addition, leading the rankings were Iceland (1st), the most peaceful country in the world,
New Zealand ranked (2nd); Ireland (3rd); Denmark (4th); Austria (5th); Portugal (6th); Slovenia (7th); Czechia (8th); Singapore (9th), and Japan (10th).
As expected, Russia (160th) was among the least ranked countries, worldwide including Afghanistan (163th); Yemen (162th), Syria (161th, and South Sudan (159th).
Relief Web reports that the peacefulness has reduced to the lowest level in 15 years, as a result of the post-Covid economic uncertainty and Ukraine/Russia conflict.
Meanwhile, the results of the 2022 Global Peace Index rankings were derived as a result some indicators used such as the level of perceived criminality in society; the number of internal security officers and police per 100,000 people; the number of homicides per 100,000 people; the number of jailed population per 100,000 people; ease of access to small arms and light weapon; level of organised conflict (internal) and terrorist activities, among others.
The Global Peace Index (GPI) is a report made by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) which determines the relative position of nations’ and regions’ peacefulness.
