Many African countries today allocate a large amount of their country's budget on militarization.

The effort seems like a deliberate one aimed at sending stern warnings to their perceived enemies.

Hence,the more equipped,trained and tested a country's military is,the more respect it earns from the global community.

It's imo a race for military, rather than economic prowess and I can't help but wonder, do we anticipate war or shouldn't we be spending more on health,infrastructure etc,because the benefits of going to war is not seen in some of these African nations.

Well,Do you think African leaders feel more empowered when they have a strong military?

The welfare of the people is at risk whenever this country is unable to protect itself from predators.
When on sees how the French destroyed Lybia and Cote d'Ivoire,when ones see how Nato is now destroying Syria ,there is no doubt military strenght is a must,it's the only way a country can secure its people. One more reason to be militarily strong is the stability enjoyed by China and Russia today. If these countries were not strong,they would already be destroyed by gangs funded by foreign powers.If Nigeria did not have the means to discourage Boko Haram ,this group would be cutting hands and closing women schools today in Abuja, Lagos and elswhere in this country.

panafrican: The welfare of the people is at risk whenever this country is unable to protect itself from predators.
When on sees how the French destroyed Lybia and Cote d'Ivoire,when ones see how Nato is now destroying Syria ,there is no doubt military strenght is a must,it's the only way a country can secure its people. One more reason to be militarily strong is the stability enjoyed by China and Russia today. If these countries were not strong,they would already be destroyed by gangs funded by foreign powers.If Nigeria did not have the means to discourage Boko Haram ,this group would be cutting hands and closing women schools today in Abuja, Lagos and elswhere in this country.

-We are a man eat man society,destroying ourselves first,then blaming the western powers. Destruction starts within the boundaries, before they become a foreign affair.

2.China and Russia manufacture their own military equipmt..Thanks to embargos.As long as we are buying,in exchange for our resources,we can drop thoughts of ever defending ourselves from anybody. Not with the advanced technology.

It's a case of misplaced priorities.What is the point of having a great military if the people can't afford the basics.

kiara11:

-We are a man eat man society,destroying ourselves first,then blaming the western powers. Destruction starts within the boundaries, before they become a foreign affair.

The "we" you are using is too compounded. Can you blame nigerians as a whole for the stupidity of Boko Haram?can you blame all ivorians for the treachery of Djoula people who were proud to use knives to open the stomach of pregnant women in western Ivory coast ? these killers were happy to see their names in french newspapers or on foreign TV channels portraying them as "freedom fighters " ( sic ! )
They did so because the central government in this country was too weak to face their military might as arms were pouring into rebel controlled areas from France through Burkina Faso and Mali.

Out of Africa ,can you blame iraqii's for the treachery of people like Al Maliki? can you blame all vietnamese for the short vision of folks like sell -out emperor Bao dai ( in the 1950s)?
In every country you have two-bit minded people who are ready to destroy their own homeland for a couple of thousand dollars a month no matter who tell them to do the dirty job, no matter what the reason is. That is why having a militarily strong central government is important. That is also why the nigerian government deserves congratulations for dealing in an appropriate manner with Boko haram.Nigeria does not need to wait to manufacture helicopters and machine guns before dealing with these types of threats. Moreover countries like the United states that were independent more than two centuries ago are still buying warefare technology from other countries.If they do not,they get it through treaties such as NATO.

It should be noticed that most of African countries were independent recently in the 1960s. You do not jump from zero to 1000 in a matter of 50 years, it is a slow and continuous process that starts from building Elementary & secondary schools, Universities, putting into place academic curriculum, teaching to the standards, paying teachers, sending students abroad or bringing foreigners for help ( like what Japan did during the Meiji era http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/japan/japanworkbook/modernhist/meiji.html)

2.China and Russia manufacture their own military equipmt..Thanks to embargos.As long as we are buying,in exchange for our resources,we can drop thoughts of ever defending ourselves from anybody. Not with the advanced technology.
It's a case of misplaced priorities.What is the point of having a great military if the people can't afford the basics.

And one can ask what is the point of focusing only on basic needs when the whole country can be turned upside down by a foreign power in matter of two days for no reason ? Googole search can give you some examples of sprawling african societies and kingdoms that were destroyed by invaders. Russia itself was defeated by Japan ( 1904-1905 see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War). And China was plundered by France and UK in the past before it became what it is today. Check Chinese history, it took them centuries and centuries to be were they now are.

What many africans sometimes miss is the fact technologies and development do not come spontaneously. For some because America manufactures laser guided missile today africans are guilty for not being able to do so !!!! They even do not consider the fact that when an african country tries hard to get out of the hole,jealous evil foreigners who want to see us begging will connive to create mayhem within the country. Whenever raw violence fails,soft sophisticated and cruel methods such as Ebola and HIV are introduced to do the job .
For intance Botwana did not threaten anyome, this country was doing pretty well, but God only knows why in some western media some are dropping crocodile tears ( fake compassion) to say that Botwana's development is being stopped by high HIV rate.

I like what you put up there.I have seen how easy it is to bring a prospering African nation down to it's knees, with my own eyes.
Kenya was headed the same way in 2007.But I am glad the mayhem stopped before the country became a war zone.
I know or have always known that puppets exist in every African nation.Puppets with immense favours/support from interested foreign powers.
At the opportune moment they come out of their shells to 'fight' for their people's rights and are deemed as heroes.Very dirty politics full of blood money.

Please tell me. Is Boko Haram the biggest threat to Nigeria? If not what is?

Would you refer to yourself as a power house because of your country's military's experience/expertise or because the economy is flourishing?

african countries were formed on shaky foundation thats why following independence, the continent went to war soon afterwards. For those basic necesities of life you talked about to be on ground, there must be security. For a democracy to flourish on the continent, the millitary have to support and protect it. They cant do this if they are not stronger than the millitia in one part of the country. So its not misplaced priority as you think. Besides, african countries spend less on defence today. A good example is naija.in naija, its about 1 percent of GDP befor boko haram.

and yes. Its important we develop our military hardwares. The fed govt knows this and thats why we are trying to revive our defence industry. We manufactured a warship not too long ago. We also made an armoured personel carrier and also a UAV.

panafrican: The welfare of the people is at risk whenever this country is unable to protect itself from predators.
When on sees how the French destroyed Lybia and Cote d'Ivoire,when ones see how Nato is now destroying Syria ,there is no doubt military strenght is a must,it's the only way a country can secure its people. One more reason to be militarily strong is the stability enjoyed by China and Russia today. If these countries were not strong,they would already be destroyed by gangs funded by foreign powers.If Nigeria did not have the means to discourage Boko Haram ,this group would be cutting hands and closing women schools today in Abuja, Lagos and elswhere in this country.

This is why we need African nuclear weapons.

National defense is and should always remain the #1 priority for any and every African country. Without the borders secure and citizens safe nothing else can be accomplished effectively.

A nation's military strength and capabilities is a good sign of their might and influence. It shows that a country is willing to invest in itself and promote their interests at home and abroad.

nigeria's military might only extends as far as acting as a houseboy for america and britain. nigeria goes to places like somalia, sierra leone and liberia to clean up the mess created by britain and america.

they send their own troops to die so that american and british multinationals can continue to ra.pe these countries of their resources without any obstruction from nationalist groups or other opposition groups within those countries. So really and truly nigeria is the biggest uncle tom you can imagine because instead of using its supposed power and postion to come to the aid of other african nations and work towards a panafrican solution to the eurocentric and white supremacist domination and exploitation of africa and its resources it acts as an enforcer for american and british banks and multinational corporations.

Nigeria is a nation run by slaves and servants of america and europe and they have no sense of dignity, self pride or nationalism - to talk about nigeria's need to strengthen its military is mising the point - nigeria relies on america and britain for military training and ammunition, nigeria's leadership are so cowed and beaten down mentally that they are terrified of doign anything that will upset their masters in washington and london - all they are good for is killing their own people and stealing - the majority of nigerian people are still in a coma and do not understand the set up, they do not understand that their own govt works in collaboration with western banks and multinational to keep them poor and oppressed.

But to answer the op's question - yes military strength is definitely a reflection of a country's might - do you think if russia did not develop their war machine in less than 10 years their country would have been able to defeat nazi germany?

do you think that if america did not have the military machine it has today it could open up over 700 military bases in country's all over the world?

do you think that america could invade and destroy sovereign countries without the military might it has?

Africa's failure to defend itself from european invasion is why the bulk of our people were enslaved and remain the underclass everywhere in the world.

^^^^

Paranoid Schizophrenia

That wasn't the question that was asked?

It sure is my brother, I mean look at it from this way. Who would take America seriously if it dint have a strong and massive military? Or nigeria for that matter. So in my view the bigger ur gun the more respect you're likely to get

morpheus24: ^^^^

Paranoid Schizophrenia

That wasn't the question that was asked?

cap28 did answer the question.

It's just that the first three paragraphs were more so critical of the motives of the Nigerian military. But if you start reading from: "But to answer the op's question - yes..." and onwards....you'll see that he answered the question