Fourteen months after the election of President Muhammadu Buhari in<\/p>\n
Nigeria, the Obama administration is considering selling his government 12
\nwarplanes. It is a thorny decision because Mr. Buhari is an improvement
\nover his disastrous predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, and is fighting Boko
\nHaram, the Islamist extremists who have terrorized the region. But he has
\nnot done enough to end corruption and respond to charges that the army has
\ncommitted war crimes in its fight against the group. Selling him the
\nplanes now would be a mistake.
\nUnder Mr. Buhari, Nigeria has cooperated more with Chad and Niger to fight
\nBoko Haram. The group, which emerged in the early 2000s, has seized land
\nin the northeastern, predominantly Muslim section of Nigeria. Thousands of
\npeople have been killed and 2.2 million displaced. The group\u2019s depravity
\ncaptured world attention in 2014 when it kidnapped 276 girls from a
\nsecondary school.
\nWhile violence is down and some territory has been recaptured, the group
\ncontinues to attack remote villages and refugee camps, and it is using
\nwomen and children as suicide bombers. American military officials say
\nthat Boko Haram has begun collaborating with the Islamic State and that
\nthe groups could be planning attacks on American allies in Africa.<\/p>\n
Yet Nigeria\u2019s government cannot be entrusted with the versatile new
\nwarplanes, which can be used for ground attacks as well as reconnaissance.
\nIts security services have long engaged in extrajudicial killings, torture
\nand rape, according to the State Department\u2019s latest annual human rights
\nreport. Amnesty International says that during the army\u2019s scorched-earth
\nresponse to Boko Haram between 2011 and 2015, more than 8,200 civilians
\nwere murdered, starved or tortured to death.
\nThe Obama administration was so concerned about this record that two years
\nago it blocked Israel\u2019s sale of American-made Cobra attack helicopters to
\nNigeria and ended American training of Nigerian troops. American officials
\neven hesitated to share intelligence with the military, fearing it had
\nbeen infiltrated by Boko Haram. That wariness has eased and American
\nofficials say they are now working with some Nigerian counterparts.
\nSince winning election on a reform platform, Mr. Buhari has moved to root
\nout graft and to investigate human rights abuses by the military. But the
\nState Department said Nigerian \u201cauthorities did not investigate or punish
\nthe majority of cases of police or military abuse\u201d in 2015.
\nThat hardly seems like an endorsement for selling the aircraft. Tim
\nRieser, a top aide to Senator Patrick Leahy, who wrote the law barring
\nAmerican aid to foreign military units accused of abuses, told The Times
\nthat \u201cwe don\u2019t have confidence in the Nigerians\u2019 ability to use them in a
\nmanner that complies with the laws of war and doesn\u2019t end up
\ndisproportionately harming civilians, nor in the capability of the U.S.
\ngovernment to monitor their use.\u201d
\nTo defeat Boko Haram, which preys on citizens\u2019 anger at the government,
\nMr. Buhari will need more than weapons. He has to get serious about
\nimproving governance and providing jobs, roads and services in every
\nregion of Nigeria. Until then or until Congress develops ways to monitor
\nthe planes\u2019 use, it should block the sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fourteen months after the election of President Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria, the Obama administration is considering selling his government 12 warplanes. It is a thorny decision because Mr. Buhari is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n