• Nigeria’s UN Security Council seat, oil blocks may favour Russia
• Jonathan to sign deal in Moscow this month
• Both countries to collaborate on satellite systems
In its bid to successfully prosecute the war against the Boko Haram insurgency after an alliance with the United States seemed to have failed, the Federal Government has opened discussions with Russia in an attempt to secure a $1billion loan from a Russian bank, aimed at purchasing arms and ammunitions.
The money, said to be coming from a bank linked with the Kremlin, the Russian seat of power, is meant for the purchase of Russian-made combat helicopter gunships and other lethal combat equipment, including fighter jets, which had been a herculean task to obtain from the US.
The Federal Government had last week severed an agreement with the US, which was meant to train Nigerian soldiers on combat operations, after Nigeria accused the US of not doing enough to assist in combating the Boko Haram insurgency.
If the new deal sails through, Nigeria’s geopolitical flip to Russia will be a major shift, and will surely reduce the depth of influence by the US and the United Kingdom over a major sub-region of the world.
According to reports released on its website, Damina Advisors, a London-based global political risk consulting firm, President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to visit Moscow before the end of the year to seal the four-part deal, if ongoing negotiations are successful.
Confirming the development, a presidency source told Newswatch Times that the US had repeatedly blocked the sale of weapons to Nigeria by western countries, leading to the latest option.
The Federal Government, Newswatch Times further learnt, had to result to this urgent measure, after several pleas to the US and UK for lethal weapons and helicopter gunships to fight the terror group failed.
Some government officials had been lamenting that the US was frustrating Nigeria’s efforts in purchasing arms, leading to a recent cancellation of a military training agreement between both countries.
Russia, presently battling with sanctions from US and Europe, is said to be in a hurry to expand its global frontiers, and increase leverage over other major oil producers, while finding new markets for its sanctioned local arms manufacturers.
The source also noted that Russia had, in recent weeks, engaged in high-level talks over a multibillion dollar arms deal and technical advisory mission to help the Goodluck Jonathan administration defeat Boko Haram.
According to Damina Advisors, the first part of the deal starts when Nigeria takes its seat on the UN Security Council in early 2015.
“Rather than traditionally siding with the US and Europe on major matters of international peace and security, the major African nation will now switch sides, and side with Russia on key votes, or at least remain neutral and deprive the traditional Western allies of major African geopolitical support.
“Secondly, Nigeria, which boasts an annual military budget of over $2billion, most of which goes to pay salaries, will secure a $1billion loan from a Russian bank linked to the Kremlin to purchase several Russian-made combat helicopter gunships and other lethal combat equipment, including possibly fighter planes.
The source continued: “Additionally, Russian military advisors will be deployed to Nigeria to assist the military high command on counter-terror tactics.
“Thirdly, Russia’s oil giant, Rosneft, might be given some oil blocks in Nigeria, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will agree to sell millions of tons of crude oil annually to Rosneft, in a deal that will allow Rosneft to strengthen its overall global oil portfolio and increase its oil price bargaining power vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia.
“Also with the election of Nigeria to the presidency of OPEC, Russia’s unofficial influence within OPEC is strong via allies Angola, Venezuela, Algeria, and Nigeria will become more pronounced if the arms deal under discussion is consummated.
“Fourthly, with Russia seeking new host countries for its GLONASS global positioning satellite systems, and Nigeria seeking to improve its own aerial satellite surveillance of the nearly 20 per cent of the north-eastern territory terrorized by Boko Haram, the deal will also see Nigeria join Brazil and Argentina, among other countries, who have agreed to have Russian GLONASS earth-based sub-stations on their territories.
The Federal Government had last week said the training of Nigerian soldiers by the US military was cancelled due to the absence of some logistic components needed for the training, after the US embassy revealed cancellation.
According to a statement released by the US Embassy in Abuja, the cancellation was at the behest of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
“At the request of the Nigerian government, the United States will discontinue its training of a Nigerian Army battalion.
“Based on mutual assessment of the Nigerian Army and US trainers, a third iteration of training was agreed upon with the intent of developing the battalion into a unit with advanced infantry skills.
“We regret premature termination of this training, as it was to be the first in a larger planned project that would have trained additional units with the goal of helping the Nigerian Army build capacity to counter Boko Haram,” the statement added.
But in a swift reaction, the Federal Government replied, giving reasons for the action.
According to the Coordinator of the National Information Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, the US trainers depended on Nigerian military hardware, which is currently deployed in the North East to fight Boko Haram, hence, the finally phase of the three-phase training had to be cancelled.
“The training that is being mentioned were supposed to be in three phases, two phases have been concluded, the next phase requires some logistical components, and I don’t think it’s wise to take equipment from the field and keep them in Jaji for training when our soldiers out there need the equipment.
“The training that is being offered by the American government did not also come with the equipment component, so if our soldiers need the same equipment, and you all know the status of our stock, we will not withdraw everything and go for training when we have need for it on the field,” he said.

Source: Newswatch Daily

We are being gradually sold to the communist

I hope this our new romance with russia will be restricted to just business and economic development rather than ideological.

Russia is no more communist. It is actually fascist now which is very worrisome. The presidency of Jonathan.is too immature, crooked and visionless to be dealing with.Russia a country with crooked billionaires who are linked to Putin, Russian mafia and ex KGB private operators who would be trying to hide their loot from western sanctions I would be more happy with a serious patriotic president like Buhari to manage Putin.

This is a good move by the government. I and a few others have said on this forum that, America and The U.K and Their NATO Allies will Never sell Nigeria any high grade weapons. Many people disputed our comments. I like this deal with Russia. Apart from the fact that our military will be upgraded, we will also get much needed technology transfer for our satellite systems. This will be good for security, agriculture, mining sector, meteorological sector e.t.c

At the end of the day there are no permanent allies. Every country looks out for their own interests, so I have no bitter feelings towards the Americans and her NATO allies.
When it comes to the Nigerian government my only problems with them was their turtle like response to making a move like this. We should have done this 2 years ago before the situation deteriorated to this point. My second problem with them is their constant pouting and crying to the media about America not selling us weapons. They should have just made a move like this without making a big scene and embarrassing themselves.