Nigerian author proposes index for the gap between formal and real sovereignty — Premium Times Nigeria
Nigerian researcher and journalist Max Amuchie has proposed the concept of a Sovereignty Decoupling Index (DSI), designed to measure the gap between a state's formal authority and its actual capacity to protect people and ensure their access to institutions in different parts of the country. In a column for Premium Times Nigeria, the author notes that a state may retain international recognition, constitutional bodies and official institutions while at the same time losing practical connection with part of its population.
Analysis at the level of individual zones
According to Amuchie's concept, the DSI should examine not the state as a whole but individual “zones” — subnational territories where the presence and effectiveness of government may differ significantly. As examples, he cites the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in Haiti, Catatumbo in Colombia's Norte de Santander department, and Zamfara State in Nigeria.
The author writes that in some districts of Port-au-Prince, armed groups exert significant influence over residents' movement, trade, work and access to basic services. In Catatumbo, formal institutions operate alongside armed organizations, the illegal economy and local protection mechanisms. According to Amuchie, an escalation of violence at the beginning of 2025 led there to mass displacement and severe humanitarian consequences.
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In Zamfara State, the author notes, prolonged violence, displacement and attacks on rural communities created conditions in which survival could require seeking protection outside the usual system of state institutions. In some cases, communities held local negotiations with armed groups regarding security.
Protection and access to institutions
Amuchie emphasizes that the DSI is not a ranking of “failed states.” In his view, the index should help identify situations in which official sovereignty is formally retained, but its practical implementation becomes uneven. To do this, it is proposed to take into account population protection, territorial control, access to services and justice, administrative identification, representation and institutions' capacity to implement their own decisions.
In the author's assessment, a person may remain legally recognized as a citizen but lack real access to state institutions or be practically unreachable by them. Under such conditions, residents may rely on family, community, informal markets, private security or other alternative systems. As conceived by Amuchie, the DSI should identify the point at which formal sovereignty begins to diverge from people's everyday experience.
