On December 20, the Australian government published an advisory statement warning its citizens against travelling to Nigeria for security reasons. Within days, the Nigerian foreign ministry posted a travel advisory against Australia.
Of the 36 Nigerian states, Australia labelled 24 ‘do not travel’.
Some of the factors the Australian government red-zoned those states for include: terrorist attacks, violent protests, abductions, high crime rates, romance scams, unsafe consumables and poor health intervention.
“Nigeria has strict laws against same-sex relationships. Avoid public displays of affection and cross-dressing. In Sharia law states, there are harsh punishments for same-sex relationships, adultery or public expression deemed blasphemous or religiously disrespectful,” the advisory further stated.
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On Tuesday, the eve of the new year, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued its own statement warning Nigerians against travelling to Australia.
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nigeria 🇳🇬 (@NigeriaMFA) December 31, 2024
What FIJ found unusual about the Foreign Ministry’s response was its contradictory expressions.
The same press release which was supposedly warning Nigerians against visiting Australia, also stated that the country “is known for its multiculturalism and tolerance”.
The Foreign Ministry tied its warning against travels to Australia to the back of “incidents of Islamophobia and antisemitism that have occurred recently in certain areas”. This claim was also backed by an early December occurrence in Sydney where a car was burnt and anti-Israel graffiti was sprayed on nearby buildings.
It was the standalone occurrence corroborating the foreign ministry’s warning. The Global Peace Index tells a different story about Australia.
THE 2024 GPI INDEX SAYS AUSTRALIA IMPROVED PEACE-WISE IN 2024, NIGERIA…OTHERWISE
To put things into perspective, the Global Peace Index measures the peace level in the ranked states using the metrics of ‘societal safety and security’, ‘extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict’ and ‘the degree of militarisation’, which simply is a measure of how battle ready a country is.
The index graded the countries with the following peace level remarks: very high, high, medium, low and very low.
Of the indexed 163 countries, Australia placed 19, ranking it in the ‘highly peaceful category’.
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The index also shows that Australia moved two places upward from where it ranked in 2023, making it one of the 65 countries on the log which experienced more qualities of peace compared to the previous year.
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In the regional breakdown, the report stated that the Asia-Pacific region witnessed a slight deterioration by 0.1 per cent but Australia, alongside Myanmar, Malaysia and five others ensured that the continents did not lose their spot as the second most peaceful region in the world.
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However, on the same list, Nigeria ranked 147th, retaining the same position it placed in 2023. The Sub-Saharan regional breakdown also showed that Nigeria dropped in peace score, although, it was not enough to take the country lower down the log.
[FIJ]
