Nigeria should shop for weapons elsewhere
Date 2021/8/3 14:37:29 | Topic: Afran
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Various reports suggest that US senators are planning to halt the agreed sales of warplanes to Nigeria on the ground of human rights.
This decision leaves many Nigerian wondering why a so-called peace-loving United States will choose do that to a nation bedevilled by security challenges ranging from violent secessionists, killer herdsmen, banditry, kidnapping and Boko Haram- an insurgency that has consumed more than 36,000 lives from 2009 till date.
The number one enemy of Nigeria is insecurity as the country’s security agencies are having difficulty in surmounting the problem over the years. No doubt, the government is trying everything humanly possible to end the ugly trend. However, the challenge continues to prove insurmountable, largely due to lack of the state-of-art weaponry in the country’s arsenal. Understanding this particular shortcoming forces the Buhari administration to shop for sophisticated arms from the United States of America – a perceived important ally of Nigerian state. Unfortunately, the bilateral relationship that exists for decades between US and Nigeria that is expected to play significant role in facilitating the arms purchase and intelligence sharing has been disregarded by these US senators.
Suffice to say, this is not the first time the US will turn down Nigeria’s demand to purchase defence equipment on spurious account of human rights violations. Denying Nigeria’s request during the Jonathan administration was undoubtedly one of the major factors that made Nigerian forces deficient in combating Boko Haram, hence leaving the insurgency to prevail then.
Now that we are faced with many other terrorism acts, we cannot afford to experience the repetition of what happened before. For us to accomplish the task of securing the territorial integrity of our nation, we must think outside the box. We must explore alternative sources for arms procurement without which it will be impossible to eliminate terrorist and terrorism in Africa’s most populous nation.
America is certainly not helping matters in our war against insurgency. No good ally would deny Nigeria the purchase of defence equipment at this difficult moment of turmoil. The federal government should in a matter of urgency leave America and shop for the needed warplanes elsewhere. We can try the likes of Russia, China, Japan, South Korea or Germany to have expeditious delivery and usage.
It is high time Nigeria and Africa realized that some of the Western countries are not interested in, or is concerned with our peaceful coexistence. We should give priority to research and development to find ways to save ourselves from such last hour denials. Relying on US to help us address the multiple security challenges in Nigeria and Africa is becoming suicidal. We must find better allies willing to help us out of any predicament unconditionally.
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