with President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria
before their bilateral meeting in New York on
September 23, 2013 on the sideline of the United
Nations General Assembly.
As President Muhammadu Buhari inquires into the
Boko Haram war expenditures under the last
administration, it has emerged that Nigeria's
traditional allies in the West deliberately frustrated
former President Goodluck Jonathan's efforts
towards ending terrorists' activities in the country.
A security source disclosed in Abuja that Nigeria,
under the leadership of Jonathan, wrote 25 letters to
the United States of America and other Western
nations, seeking to acquire state of the art weapons
to deal decisively with the terrorists.
However, they all turned down the requests, the
source said.
"What was most painful was the fact that Nigeria was
not begging to be given those weapons as gifts. We
were ready to pay for them but they turned their
backs on us when we needed them most.
"The same people who made all the promises about
assisting us to bring an end to the Boko Haram
attacks and bring back the abducted Chibok girls did
everything they could to frustrate our efforts", he
added.
According to him, the scandal that broke out over the
botched South African arms deals was the
culmination of the worst that a frustrated sovereign
nation could face.
Two attempts by foreign contractors engaged by the
nation's highest security authorities to buy arms from
South Africa and Israel were stopped and over $24
million of Nigeria's hard earned foreign exchange
seized by South African authorities in two separate
instances in that country.
It was learnt that though the funds were eventually
released to Nigeria, the harm had been done and the
purpose stopped mid-stream.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that when it became very
clear that the nation's long-standing traditional allies
were not prepared to assist, Nigeria had to turn to
Eastern Europe and Asia for weapons.
"A conclusion was reached that the nation would
suffer more devastation should she continue to beg
those we regarded as our friends when things were
going on well with us. It was at that point that the
nation had to look elsewhere, especially towards the
East and Asia", the source said.
Nigeria's Ambassador to the US who died in
Washington, last week, Prof Adebowale Adefuye,
captured the mood of the then government and most
Nigerians when he addressed the American Council
on Foreign Relations, in November last year.
"The US government has up till today refused to grant
Nigeria's request to purchase lethal equipment that
would have brought down the terrorists within a
short time,'' "We find it difficult to understand how
and why, in spite of the US presence in Nigeria with
their sophisticated military technology, Boko Haram
should be expanding and becoming more deadly.
"There is no use giving us the type of support that
enables us to deliver light jabs to the terrorists when
what we need to give them is the killer punch. A
friend in need is a friend indeed. The true test of
friendship is in times of adversity," he said.
America's only excuse for refusing to sell the much-
needed weapons to Nigeria was that Nigerian troops
were reportedly not adhering to the fundamental
human rights of the terrorists, in the prosecution of
the Boko Haram war.
The security source who spoke with Vanguard said
the alternative arms sources in Eastern Europe and
Asia did not only receive Nigeria with open hands,
"we also got other forms of 'technical assistance' as
those who provided some of the equipment also
entered into agreement with us to have some of their
military personnel join our troops for the purposes
of ensuring optimal performance of all the
equipments.
"We didn't want a situation where we would get to the
war theatre and have any of the equipment
breakdown without the expertise to promptly fix it".
The source said that Some of the expatriates seen
among the troops were with them to provide such
requisite technical assistance. According to him,
the successes recorded from the last months of Dr.
Jonathan in office and the current onslaught against
the terrorist were due mainly to the arrival of various
equipments from countries other than Western
nations that call themselves Nigeria's traditional
allies.
He observed that President Buhari's panel would
discover at the end of its sitting that it was not
possible for the Jonathan administration to have
reduced Boko Haram to the level it left it without
having to bend backwards on several fronts to secure
the right weapons and technical expertise.
AbleMoJah® Nigeria.
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