Boko Haram: Nigeria Begs US, Russia For Combat Helicopters

WE CAN’T WIN WITHOUT MODERN EQUIPMENT- ARMY

WHILE SOLDIERS ARE DESERTING WARFRONT

By Fola James

Claim by Nigerian Airforce on Monday that it has neutralized and killed some top commanders of Boko Haram in Borno state appears a good news following suggestions in the Defence community that the war against the dreaded insurgents has become so difficult for the Nigerian armed forces to win.

Many soldiers are now deserting the battle fronts, said Turkur Burutai, Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff in an interview.

The development has now opened the window for ISWAP,the remnants of ISIS who have now joined boko haram in the bloody battle to take over more territories in many parts of North.

But in the face of all of these, the inability of the nation’s armed forces to secure necessary platform has pushed back efforts to defeat the blood thirsty insurgents, said the army.

Major General Olusegun  Adeniyi, the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafia Dole, the military wing fighting the insurgents in the North East, has recently disclosed to the National Assembly that the  Army is disadvantaged because of lack of fighter helicopters.

“The only thing that needs to be given to the army now is Nigeria Army Aviation with its own helicopters,” General Adeniyi said at a meeting with lawmakers last week.

The question is whether the Nigerian government is prepared to roll back gains made by Boko Haram and its allies in the last few months leading to the takeover of new territories in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.

It does not seem so.

For instance, the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has recently come under pressure from Nigerians to increase defense spending in the 2020 Budget.

According to the estimate President Buhari presented recently  to the joint session of the National Assembly, the Ministry of Defence, comprising different operational units like the Army, Navy, Air Force, Defence Headquarters, Nigerian Defence Academy, Defence Intelligence Agency and 11 other units was allocated a whopping N878,458,607,427 total allocation.

The allocation is the second highest allocation of all the sectors.

Meanwhile, recent revelations indicate that over 90 percent of that allocation will be used to pay salaries and allowances of service men in the country.

“Considering this fact, you will understand what we are saying that the attitude of the government does not show seriousness in the war against insurgence, James Ayodele, a Defense analyst told the magazine on Monday.

He disclosed that modern military equipment are urgently required to curtail the advance of insurgents in Borno, for instance, who have been burning villages and chasing residents from their land.

The governor of Borno state has recently employed some Saudi Arabia Islamic spiritualists to save the state from being totally sacked by the insurgents.

Apart from divine intervention, analysts insist that the purchase of modern military platform such as the Boeing made Apache helicopters, for the Nigerian armed forces could turn the battle against the insurgents who have killed over a million people in its quest to establish a caliphate.

The Nigerian Airforce consisting 10,000 personnel are armed with 12 Chinese Chengdu F-7s, and 11 Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jets, armed helicopters, and military transport aircraft.

Even though the nation’s armed forces are among the largest in the continent, it’s very far from what a modern fighting force should be, analysts say.

Recent checks by the magazine indicate that huge resources needed to be committed to this cause considering that one of such helicopters could cost the nation’s tax payers at least $20m.

But analysts insist this will not be too much because of Apache’s cutting edge features, such as clear night vision, precision et al which differentiate it from other elite fighter helicopters.

According to findings, the AH-64A (2007) version of the helicopter costs around $20 m.

The information sourced from Boeing also indicates that the AH-64D(2010) version goes for $33m while the AH-64E costs $35m.

Other elite helicopter fighters also include the Bell AH-1Z Viper ($31 Million), Kazam Mi-35 ($36 Million) and Denel Rooivalk ($40 Million),

We also have the Eurocopter Tiger ($41 Million), Sikorsky Sea Hawk ($43 Million), NH-90 $(50 Million), Boeing V22 Osprey ($72 Million) and others.

But the money to buy these high profile combat helicopters is not the major challenges facing the federal government, the biggest constraint is the refusal by United States and its allies to sell military weapons to Nigeria.

Even though President Donald Trump had allowed his government to sell weapons to Nigeria at the early stage of President Buhari government, it has since seized from doing so over allege human rights abuses by the nation’s armed forces waging war against Boko Haram in the North east.

Recall that President Buhari recently turned to Russia to help