As President Buhari has now returned from his trip from America, Nigerians will now need to take stock of what tangible achievements have been made from that trip.
It appears the most urgent help need from the Americans were the need to lift the arms ban that (according to our president) has hampered our efforts to fight Boko Haram. The Americans have quoted the Leahy amendment that appears to have restricted or tied the hands of the Americans. The Leahy Amendment is meant to prevent American arms going to countries with human rights record challenges. The Nigerian state has not been convicted of any human rights offences nor has it been sanctioned by any United Nations human rights body.
We are all living witnesses to the countless charges of genocide against Israel and the countless UN resolutions against Israeli activities within the occupied territories. None of which has stopped or impeded American arms from flowing to that Middle Eastern state.
It is time Nigerians wake up to the reality that America is not a partner to Nigeria in this fight. America under its current leadership is playing the role of the duplicitous friend. Its Libya policy that led to the overthrow of Gaddafi also gave rise some of Gaddafi’s mercenaries moving further south with weapons that flowed into the hands of groups such as BH.
Furthermore, America has deprived Nigeria of crucial funds as it has virtually stopped importing our oil exports. In many respects, America has ceased to act as a friend of Nigeria in matters that matters most to Nigeria. Nigeria will be wise to note that.
Nigeria needs to reset and reassess its foreign policy goals and seek relationships with other countries that are able to provide Nigeria with credible assistance in its time of need. As it happens, America were hardly a friendly nation to Nigeria during the Biafra war or during the current Boko Haram war.
That said, BH is itself precluded from getting arms internationally and lack the machinery of state to raise money. It has nonetheless been able to obtain weapons and evolve into a credible army. It has built its army from scratch within 6 years and has consistently adopted its fighting strategy to the reality of the battle it has faced at any point in time.
The Nigerian army whose troops are trained at the Nigerian Defense Academy and sent overseas for various training and whose promotions are subject to examinations have found it difficult to implement strategies within which to defeat or contain Boko Haram. Its military tactics appear rigid and inflexible. It is difficult to know which of the two armies had the benefit of formal training in the art of warfare.
Maybe it is time for Nigeria to seek the defection of some BH commanders and appoint one of them as COAS. They clearly have mastered the art of lateral thinking in a way that the Nigerian army clearly has not. If the Nigerian army is bereft of other ideas with which to get weapons despite the Nigerian state having billions of dollars of revenue at its disposal, then the Nigerian defense Academy and all other institutions of the Nigerian defense intelligentsia needs to be closed.
Nigeria clearly needs to expand its friends and the sources from which it obtains weapons. It also needs to have a more flexible approach to this war. President Buhari appears to be doing much of the same things that former President Jonathan attempted to do. A more unconventional approach may now be required.
Dele.Awogbeoba@gmail.com