I would love to visit Nigeria but I share what many Westerners seem to have: Fear for their safety. What is so interesting in my home city is that following the rule of law seems to be ingrained in our citizens' DNA. How this came about seems to echo this passage:
"If you wish to train a English longbowman, you must start with his grandfather."
How we will train the grandfathers of Nigeria? Create an environment that allows for people to respect - down to their bones - the common laws of the land. How this can be achieved is the extremely difficult part.
You are completely correct. The "English Longbowman Problem" is Nigeria's biggest problem, even bigger than the corruption because it is the reason for the corruption. There is no institutional memory of following the rule of law and not running a corrupt government/organization ... okay, I am exaggerating but only slightly.
As for the safety thing, honestly it's very strange. The Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram horrorshow always seems to be happening somewhere else; social media and the news is full of it but no one I know ever seems to have witnessed it. Don't get me wrong, it is happening but the parts of Nigeria where it's hot are generally not where a foreigner would go anyway. The places foreigners would go are pretty safe -- unless you work in the field for an oil company, I guess.
That is a very interesting point about safe places in Nigeria. A new study by German Market research company GFK found 23% of Germans view the USA as "unsafe" to travel to. It seems people in the west don't have access to high quality information about particular regions of the world's "safety index".
Hey, Nigeria has Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram, America has Mass Shooters and Actual fricking Nazis yet millions of people live to a ripe old age in America and Nigeria without ever hearing a gunshot or seeing their own blood.
(Am I being facetious in my equivalence? Absolutely and yet I am technically not wrong in the slightest)