A lot has been said on the thawing of ties between two heavyweights, the U.S.A and Nigeria. The United States is the 3rd most populous nation on Earth, only China and India have more people than the U.S. Nigeria is the 6th most populous country in the world with analysts predicting Nigeria will have more people than the United States in the year 2040.


Needless to say these two countries plays a pivotal role in their respective regions, the former a global Superpower, the latter a regional power. One would think that facing similar threats the United States will see Nigeria as a vital ally in its war against terror. Nigeria is America’s largest trading partner in Africa. In Libya Nigeria’s vote was the determining vote that allowed the Security Council to authorize a NATO strike against former Libyan strongman Muamma Gaddafi (despite strong opposition from Zimbabwe and South Africa. Fast forward today relations between these two giants leaves much to be desired.The animosity between the Nigerian government and its American counterpart has degenerated to an all time low with the Nigerian government cancelling a plan to have the United States military train a battalion of the Nigerian army to confront the extremist Boko Haram sect. But why the sudden apathy? But first let us examine the genesis of this conflict……………

Flash back 2009 when Boko Haram shocked the Nigerian government with a series suicide attacks and cold blooded murder on innocent civilians.Recovering from the shock the Nigerian government was very efficient albeit brutal in its clamp down against this group. Boko Haram members were pursued and captured, few managed to escape to neighboring Cameroon.

The then Boko Haram leader was captured and eventually executed and for a while Boko Haram was effectively destroyed and peace reigned once more. What followed was an unexpected and i dare say stunning reaction by the global community. The Nigerian government was criticized for its heavy handedness and as the then U.S Secretary of State once out it ”a disproportionate use of force” against the terrorists. Human right advocacy groups like Amnesty International were at the fore front of demonizing the Nigerian military for alleged Human Rights violation. Funny how Amnesty International was fighting for the rights of Boko Haram. Nigeria, with its leader not versed in international geopolitics and how it works ordered the army to backtrack its operations against Boko Haram and eventually ceased military activities to checkmate this group. During this period the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ”Consistently” refused to label Boko Haram a terrorists group” despite the UN bombing in Abuja Little did the naive Nigerian leadership know that four years later the Nigerian military will be locked in a bloody and costly war of attrition that sees thousands of innocent citizens dead. The nations armories by now depleted and near exhaustion, the Nigerian government falters, the inability to rescue the over 200 kidnapped school girls were highlighted by the hitherto uninterested international media houses. ”Corruption” was the tag line used to describe the Nigerian army.

They described the Nigerian army of being too weak to stop Boko Haram, indeed many postulated that Nigerian soldiers were too scared to fight Boko Haram. The international media houses rather than show the barbarity and heinous crimes perpetrated by Boko Haram sought instead to ridicule the Nigerian government. Indeed at this time Boko Haram enjoyed unprecedented international media attention, the media attention only galvanized Boko Haram to carry out more acts of terror, they were the new Kings of the Block and CNN being the propaganda arm of Boko Haram made sure the world got this message. Boko Haram was potrayed in better light than the Nigerian army. Corruption, desertion,mutiny and incompetence were some of the words often associated with the Nigerian military.

The Unted States trumpeting through the media assured the whole world that they was going to supply Nigeria with expertise and advanced anti-terrorist equipment, dollars and everything required to fight Boko Haram. While the United States was being applauded, they made sure Nigeria never got space to buy weapons. Stunned by this action and feeling betrayed the Nigerian government In desperation swallowed its pride went South Africa, its economic rival and its number one Geo-political foe in Africa -South Africa where she got engulfed in money laundering problems.This is the culmination of the insult Nigeria gets in return for her sacrifice and goodwill to world politics.

Nigeria needed support to deliver the “killer punch”, not “light jabs” against the Boko Haram . With an amoury depleted after 5 years of fighting the dreaded group alone without reinforcement villages and towns fell to Boko Haram. Today they control an area the size of Costa Rica and yet again the Nigerian government requested to purchase platforms suitable for COIN (Counter Insurgency) operations such as the Cobra Helicopter gunships and Chinook heavy lift helicopters but what happens? your guess is as good as mine.

Pakistan

Nigeria’s effort at ending the Boko Haram insurgency by procuring arms from Pakistan ran into a hitch when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Americas staunchest ally in the Middle East refused to grant over-flight permits the aircraft conveying military equipment and armoured tanks procured by the Nigerian government from Pakistan.

Israel

In Israel, despite the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had initially approved the sale of weapons to Nigeria the United States government blocked the sale because of because of “unfounded allegations of human rights violations by Nigerian troops. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION. Paradoxically ironic given the fact that it is the same America that has gone to Chad to OSTENSIBLY help the Chad’s War effort, Britain has based it’s front line fighters like the Tornado there also to help. Conveniently Mr Kerry will make no metion of the gross human rights violations or the Child soldiers. It is the same America that is about to send millions of dollars to the terrorist group ”Free Syrian Rebels”, a group that has a history of killing Christians and non believers to overthrow the stable government of the Assad regime, a secular government where the rights of Christians and other religious fates are tolerated. Hundreds of thousands of people including Christians held daily rallies supporting the Assad regime in the face of terror. Such spectacular demonstration and endorsement of Assad were never seen on Western television.T

The Americans are repeating the same mistake they did in A-STAN where they supplied Stinger surface to air missiles to the then Mujaheddin to against the Soviet Union only to spend billions of dollars a decade later fighting the same terrorists they supported and trained. This policy has proved to be dangerous and pointless in the past, there is no reason to believe overthrowing the secular regime of Assad and replacing them with terrorist group will bring about the needed peace and stability in the region.

Conclusion

While we realize the USA cannot protect every nation around the world when things go awry. America should realize that the Rules of Engagement will be impossible to uphold when fighting an enemy that does not abide by any international rules of engagement. Symmetry and Urban guerrilla warfare is a new kind of threat, one which African armies are not trained for. While i agree America has its right to refuse weapons sale to Nigeria it is an act of barbarity in itself for the Obama administration to take a step further to cripple the Nigerian military ability to wage war on Boko Haram,. The U.S have mobilized her allies to block sales to Nigeria. It is really sad for Nigeria that a country whom we are always beholden to, would treat us this way.

Source: https://naijaattitudeblog./2015/02/01/america-friend-or-foe/

FRIEND!!!!!!!!!










#irepamerica#

It depends on the angle u are viewing them from... I didn't read the article though!

friend

Foe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rJSWbXD2zo

[size=15pt]Barrack Obama - Bad Governance Responsible For Boko Haram[/size]

You forgot the Economic war. How they influenced the fall of oil price and the Saudis refusal to cut supply so as to increase the price. They are foes and my generation would remember this tomorrow.