www.telegraph.co.uk

Nigeria using UK aid to
persecute president's
political foes rather to fight

By Con Coughlin , DEFENCE EDITOR
12 APRIL 2016 • 7:52PM.

hundreds of millions of pounds of British
foreign aid given to Nigeria to help
combat Boko Haram terrorists is instead
being used to fund a witch-hunt against
opposition politicians, it is being claimed.
Britain has committed to spending £860 million
in foreign aid to Nigeria, which now boasts
Africa’s largest economy, to help support the
country’s efforts to crush Boko Haram terror
group, which has been responsible for a spate
of outrages, including the kidnapping of
hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls.
But Western officials are now raising concerns
that the government of the country’s recently
elected leader, President Muhammadu Buhari,
is misusing the funds to persecute political
opponents.
Since Mr Buhari came to power last July, a
number of prominent members of the former
ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have
been arrested and imprisoned without charge.
Among those detained was the party’s official
spokesperson.
• Nigeria: a nation in fear of becoming the next
Rwanda
Most of the arrests have been sanctioned by the
government-controlled Economic and Financial
Crime Commission, which was set up to tackle
corruption and receives funding from the
Department for International Development.
But while Mr Buhari’s government continues to
use British aid money to target his political
opponents, it is proving less effective at
tackling the Islamist-run Boko Haram terrorist
group.
Much of the aid Britain provides to Nigeria is
aimed at helping the country’s security forces
to become more effective at tackling Boko
Haram, which boasts of its links with Islamic
State (Isil) and achieved international notoriety
two years ago after kidnapping 276 schoolgirls
in northern Nigeria two years ago.
• Boko Haram demands '$50m ransom' for
release of kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls
Scores of British military personnel – including
members of the Special Forces – are based in
Nigeria helping to train the military to tackle
Boko Haram. But despite Mr Buhari’s pledge
during last year’s general election campaign
that he would make tackling Boko Haram one
of his top priorities, there is growing concern
among Western officials that the Nigerian
military is failing to take effective action
against the terrorists.
This has resulted in Boko Haram now being
regarded as the world’s deadliest terrorist
organisation, responsible for more deaths than
Isil. There are now reports that the group is
trying to train kidnapped children to act as
suicide bombers.
President Muhammadu Buhari is currently on a visit to
China CREDIT: WANG ZHAO/AFP
“This is a scandal in the making," explained a
senior U.S. official. "There is no doubt the
growing strength of Boko Haram is because
President Buhari is far more interested in
settling scores with his political opponents that
concentrating his energy on defeating
terrorists,” “The result is that Nigeria is
starting to look more and more like a police
state while Boko Haram just goes from strength
to strength.”
• The Boko Haram suicide bomber who
survived her deadly mission
Another Western diplomat added: “If Buhari
was serious about fighting corruption he would
be focusing all of his efforts on targeting
corruption that is impeding Nigeria’s ability to
focus its efforts on tackling Boko Haram.”
Accusations that Nigeria is abusing British aid
will add to the growing controversy over
Downing Street’s commitment to spend 0.7
percent of GDP on the foreign aid budget. Last
week the Telegraph reported that DFID was
under pressure to cancel £200 million of
foreign aid to Tanzania following concerns over
a widely condemned election.
This resulted in Dr Liam Fox, the former
Defence Secretary, accusing the government of
“spraying money around” simply to achieve
the 0.7 per cent target.
Western officials have expressed concern about
Mr Buhari’s increasingly autocratic style of
government since he came to power last year.
A retired major-general, Mr Buhari, 73,
previously headed a brutal military
dictatorship following a coup in December
1983, which lasted until he was overthrown by
another coup in 1985.
Now political opponents claim he is returning
to his old dictatorial ways, abusing British aid
meant to improve Nigeria’s ability to tackle
Boko Haram to consolidate his hold on power.
Apart from the concerns over British aid,
American officials are also angry that $2.1
billion of aid given to the Nigerian military to
tackle Boko Haram has not been properly
accounted for.
Mr Buhari’s claim that he is winning the war
against Boko Haram - recently claimed the
group no longer poses a serious threat - has
been undermined by recent revelations the
Nigerian authorities have tried to cover up the
fact that hundreds more schoolchildren have
been abducted by Boko Haram.
Human rights activists have no confirmed that
around 400 women and children were
abducted last year by militants from the
Nigerian town of Damasak.
It is now believed that some of these children
may have been trained as suicide bombers. U.S.
counter-terrorism experts say at least 105
women and girls trained by Boko Haram have
taken part in suicide attacks since June 2014.

eh ye!

Enough of all these aids jare....
We can do without them. They just make African leaders lazy and more corrupt

miccheck58:
Enough of all these aids jare....
We can do without them. They just make African leaders lazy and more corrupt

How can you do without aid ? When the Buhari has just signed for a loan of $6bn ? Why dont we focus our energy on a growing concern that the world now sees this man as a persecutor of opposition which undoubtedly is true. Your opinion is very local and the world stage is now aware of the antics of the old soldier.

Am glad that the whole world have decoded this monster called Buhari.