#Nigeria Turn To Russia To Buy Heavier Weapons, Cancelled MilitaryTraining With USA Over Rejection To Sell Cobra Attack Helicopters!
Nigeria’s perception (is) that the US is somehow abandoning Nigeria in its moment of need as it’s threatened by Boko Haram and not providing the kind of security and military assistance that Nigeria feels it needs right now. For the US, there’s deep concern over Nigeria’s response to Boko Haram – a very military heavy response -- and one that has raised a lot of allegations about mass human rights abuses,” she said.
Also watching developments in Nigeria, a senior analyst at the defence and security analysis organisation IHS Jane’s 360, Ben Moores, said: “I think the U.S. is still fully committed to supporting democracy in Nigeria in terms of a trading relationship, in terms of military equipment. I think it has changed somewhat with [the] withdrawal of trainers – a training team from Nigeria.”
There are several reasons, Moores said, why the US would not sell Nigeria advanced weapons systems.
“The advanced helicopters and fighter jets the US has, they wouldn’t want to go to Nigeria because that equipment could be passed onto a third party. And also selling fighter jets and attack helicopters to Nigeria doesn’t perhaps solve the problem that Nigeria has when dealing with the insurgency. What you really need is a better motivated force, a more professional force to deal with some of the social and cultural problems that exist in Nigeria.”
Rights groups have reported those abuses include the killing and detention of innocent civilians. Cooke said the US considers human rights an important issue in Nigeria.
“The human rights standard is not just for moral reasons. It’s that the US has learned the hard way that human rights abuses in failing to engage communities really becomes a security setback over the long-run as well,” she said.
But defence analyst Moores said US concerns go beyond human rights when it comes to weapons sales and military training.
“My understanding is that there were leaks or moles inside the Nigerian military, who were leaking information to Boko Haram. They were leaking certain bits of information, training information and perhaps information on the team itself.” Moores explained why Nigeria would turn to Russia for the types of weapons it could not get from the US.
“Russia is known to sell equipment at a relatively low cost. It’s known to sell to pretty much anyone without any questions asked. It doesn’t ask for any guarantees in terms of the where the equipment will go – how the equipment is used. There’s no oversight. They don’t have to sign up for agreements. Not only that, but Russia is able to supply equipment relatively quickly – and to supply equipment that is fairly easy for less technically capable militaries to get that equipment into the frontline at a relatively fast pace,” he said.
What’s more, he said, Russia may give Nigeria a billion dollar line of credit to buy the weapons.
Source; thisdaylive.com
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