There is news making the rounds in mainstrean media that Nigeria is paying the cost of the sudden interruption of weapons imports from Russia. One wonders if this just preying on the limited knowledge of some Nigerians in the global arms industry or just genuine ignorance.
The bulk of Nigeria's arms procurement in the last decade has been with China, Pakistan, Turkey, France, Italy and Czech Republic. Russia accounts for less than 5% of Nigeria's arms import. Let's start from the navy.
Our most modern corvette, NNS Unity and NNS Centenary are from China.
The Navy's newest Hydrological survey vessel NNS Lana is from France.
The new Landing Ship Tank (LST-100), aka roll-on-roll-off landing ship, to replace NNS AMBE and NNS OFIOM was constructed by Damen Shipyards in the Netherlands.
In November 2021 the Nigerian Navy signed a contract with the Turkish company, Messrs Dearsan Shipyard Limited for the purchase of two brand new Offshore Patrol Vessels.
On land the newly aquired Type 89 Infantry fighting vehicles (China)
CSK-131 Dongfeng Mengshi amoured vehicle (China)
VT-4 Main Battle Tank and ST-1 Light Tanks (China).
SH105 self propelled artillery (China).
CS/VP3 "Bigfoot" Mrap (China).
Isotrex Mrap (UAE)
In the air, JF-17 Thunder and Super Mushank trainers aircraft (Pakistan)
AWI09 E "Power" attack helicopter (Italy).
A-29 Super Tucano COIN attack aircraft. (USA).
The only Russian hardware aquired in the last five years are the Mi-35M helicopter gunships and Mi-17 multi mission helicopter.
Nigeria is far less reliant on Russian weapons to meet its security imperatives than most people realise.
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It's time for the Nigerian government to deploy one Wing Loong II or CH-4 drones to the border with Cameroon. The Wing Loong could be used in night, low visibility to help support border patrol out of the normal daytime cycle.
While the drones would be primarily used in intelligence and surveillance operations, their hunter killer capability is more than enough deterrent to both state and non state actors.
We can create a virtual wall with drones. Drones allow for real time, high quality video feeds of the ground with their ball camera that can stream live videos or infrared images..
Its been less than a year since induction and the A-29s are playing the key role in supporting troops on the ground, even without their full compliment of precision guided munitions.
Absent the A-29 our ground forces who had grown reliant on Alpha jets and Aero L-39 were prone to suffer setbacks. Now they have a bird that can even provide high fidelity ISR on the job. Building a modern and lethal strike capability within the NAF has been the key to success
Before now consistent close air support and battlefield situation awareness was a critical gaps that needed to be addressed. Air Power was gonna be the deciding factor in dealing with insurgents and the Alpha jet was just not designed for close air support missions.
Europe is on the cusp of having a fast detox of its over reliance on Russian oil. The U.S has never really been dependent on Russian energy. As of this writing America is the biggest oil producer in the world, producing a staggering 12.6 million bpd. More than Saudi Arabia.
The EU however is in a mess. They just announced they will cut gas imports from Russia by 2/3 this year. EU countries rely on Russian gas to heat homes, run factories and fuel cars. Germany itself gave up on nuclear energy in its entirety years ago.
To avert economic collapse, oil and gas previously delivered from Russia need to be sourced elsewhere. Russia supplies 1/3 of Europe's crude oil imports and 90% of the gas used in the EU.
There 70,000 Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria the world doesn't seem to care about. Around 60 Cameroonian soldiers recently invaded the villages of Mairogo and Tosso, harassing and intimidating their inhabitants, refugees in Nigeria.
In January 2022, Cameroonian soldiers invaded Mairogo, warning residents they will be back and torching homes.
In February 2022 Cameroonian soldiers again invaded Mairogo. They severely beat several residents, and arrested and took with them four young people..
In 2017 Zacharia Okana, a political opponent of the regime of President Paul Biya fled Cameroon in 2017 for fear of arrest. He should be safe in Nigeria right?
In September 2020 Cameroonian gendarmes stormed the border town of Ikom and illegally arrested him...
Nigerian politicians are simply amazing smh. Weeks after Nigeria was removed from the list of piracy prone nations by the International Maritime Bureau, the House of Representatives is investigating the legality of the $195 million Deep Blue Contract for the supply
..of certain security and surveillance equipments.
In a six year span Nigeria went from being the piracy capital of the world, to having one of the safest maritime domain in the world made possible by a combination of sea, air and land based assets. Just to name a few:
Received a strong reprimand from the representative of a Nigerian government official over some tweet I criticking his denial about 30k fighters surrendering. Not gonna mention names. The fact we are entitled to our own opinion doesnt mean we are entitled to our own FACT.
The fact is that between July 2021 and March 2022 over 35,000 insurgents have surrendered. Some people may not like it, I understand. But trying to bend reality for personal gratification is abhorrent. We've seen hundreds of desperate and defeated Boko Haram
..and ISWAP fighters stumbling to surrender. Many of their families huddled in make shift camps, dirty and hungry. Doesn't mean the war is over. Many are still defiant, but to deny the obvious truth for partisan sake because it makes the President looks good is wrong.