Nigeria on Wednesday accused South Africa of
blocking a legal arms purchase and threatened
retaliation against major South African companies,
including telecom giant MTN, if the spat is not
resolved.
A top official in the office of Nigeria’s National Security
Advisor (NSA) told AFP that the country had an
agreement to buy $5.7 million (4.5 million euros)
worth of military hardware in a deal brokered by a
South African firm.
The official, who asked that his name be withheld,
said Pretoria had frozen cash that had been wired to
the South African firm’s account.
South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority made no
immediate comment, but the asset freeze has been
widely reported in both Nigerian and South African
media.
“The issue could affect bilateral relations between
Nigeria and South Africa,” the NSA official said.
He specifically mentioned MTN — a South Africa-
based mobile phone and Internet provider with tens of
millions of subscribers in Nigeria — as a company
that could be targeted in tit-for-tat reprisals.
“You cannot be making so much money from Nigeria
and then turn around and embarrass the people,” the
Nigerian official said.
He said Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan had
called his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma to
inform him about the purchase and Abuja was
therefore surprised to learn that the deal had been
blocked.
Zuma’s spokesman Mac Maharaj declined to
comment on the reported conversation between the
two leaders, but told AFP the president was not part
of the committee that reviews arms deals.
The NSA official did not identify the South African
broker.
The website of South Africa’s City Press named the
firm as the Cape Town-based Cerberus Risk Solutions
but that could not be independently verified.
The development comes three weeks after South
African customs officials seized $9.3 million in cash
stashed in the luggage of two Nigerians and an
Israeli.
South Africa’s prosecution authority said there was
evidence indicating those funds were intended to
purchase armaments to be used in Nigeria.
The Nigerian security official declined to comment on
whether the cash found in the plane last month was
part of a weapons purchase, but insisted the $5.7
million deal frozen by South Africa was a legal arms
transaction “through a bank”.
Nigerian lawmakers last month approved a request
from Jonathan for a loan of more than $1 billion to
fight Boko Haram extremists.
Analysts saw the president’s request as a tacit
acknowledgement that the military is overmatched
against the Islamists, who are thought to control more
than two dozen towns and villages in the embattled
northeast.
Troops have refused to deploy for offensives against
the insurgents, citing a lack of proper equipment.
‘Blocked’ from weapons market
The NSA official said Nigeria would prefer to buy
armaments directly from major Western
manufacturers, but that multiple trades had been
vetoed by the governments involved.
“Everywhere we go to purchase arms they block us…
We approached the United States to buy helicopters
but they categorically said ‘no’. They said we have no
pilots,” the NSA official said.
He said Nigeria would not need to go through
middlemen if the United States agreed to sell to it
directly.
A State Department official, asked whether the US had
rejected Nigerian attempts to buy weapons on the
open market, told AFP that Washington reviews “all
potential arms transfers for their consistency with US
policy and interests.”
He declined however to comment on any specific
cases.
Nigeria is nominally considered a US ally and
American oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron have a
significant presence in the country, but relations
between Abuja and Washington are thought to have
frayed in recent months.
The US offered military and logistical support in
helping rescue the more than 200 schoolgirls
kidnapped by Boko Haram in April, but experts said
the Americans were largely rebuffed by Nigeria’s top
brass.

i hope it won't affect relationship between the two countries

Infact no more using my mtn line, no more subscribing with DSTHIEVES, what else again Boycotting all.

NIGERIA IS STILL SLEEPING. THE WAR ON TERROR IN NIGERIA IS SABOTAGED BY SERIOUS ISLAMIC FORCES.

THERE IS A VERY BAD ISLAMIC AGENDA ON NIGERIA AND AFRICA AT LARGE.