If there was any doubt that Nigeria is a failing state, the politics and pathology of the cow business now make it manifestly so. Nigeria is strutting towards a possible implosion on account of growing lawlessness. In spite of many years of denial, leading members of the ruling APC now concede the obvious: Nigeria is largely an ungoverned territory. The Governor of Kaduna State, recently at a national dialogue, pointedly described Nigeria as a lawless state. He pointed to the absence of the monopoly of violence which is definitive of a state. in Nigeria today, private individuals, especially, bandits and other criminals, are more in control of violence and able to use violence than governments, federal and state. The nation’s authorized governments are helpless and halfhearted while criminals are vehement and inspired. Kidnapping is slowing becoming the fastest growing industry in Nigeria. The rumour is that the recent kidnapping of school children in Niger State has yielded N800m for the kidnappers. Billions are spent as ransom and hush money to bandits. Many state governments in northern Nigeria have now established formal protocols for dealing with bandits and killer herdsmen who virtually control significant parts of those states. We can say that the bandit, the kidnapper, and the killer herdsmen are the fourth branch and level of government in Nigeria. It is now a lawless republic.