United states of America Nigeria’s fair weather friend, but no ally.
The recent announcement by the US to sell 12 embraer A-29 super tucano fighter jets cannot make up for past US snubbing of the nation Nigeria. During the Nigeria civil war former president of the US Lyndon B Johnson —a life-long democrats— refused to sell ammunitions, equipment and fighter jets to the Yakubu Gowon administration to prosecute the civil war; in fact they refused to provide spare parts for hardware they supplied before civil war broke-out. This refusal to sell military hardware was as a result of discovery and development of oil production in the region which the US and its allies wanted to exploit for their own aggrandizement. The US saw the new state of Biafra as a way to get unfiltered and unrestricted access to Nigeria oil instead of the bureaucratic bottlenecks it will face dealing with Nigeria as an entity; they believed that after the war the new Biafran state will be on its knees begging for assistant in the exploration of its oil resources. Thank God for the leadership of Yakubu Gowon and the peace loving brinksmanship of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who found common ground to their differences and stopped the ensuing carnage. History repeated itself again when the US at the height of the Boko-Haram insurgency refused to sell cobra helicopters and other military hardware that would have made substantial difference on the battle field. The hypocritical excuse of unfounded and lack of evidence base human right violation allegations cited by our Washington friends was laughable,because the Egyptian military killed and unlawfully detained protesters and journalist during the same period of arab uprising for the whole world to see; but that didn’t stop the delivery of F16 fighter jets to them. The saudi’s also killed innocent civilians during an air raid mishap on a wedding compound in Yemen and the US didn’t stop the sale of military hardware to the Saudi’s;which all the mainstream media in the USA had a 24hours rolling coverage on. The fact that the US not only refused sell military hardware to Nigeria ;but also blocked sales from other countries to Nigeria notably the sale of surplus AH-1 cobra attack helicopters which the Israel defense force(IDF) phased out in 2013 and the Israeli-produced unmanned air system. The US can make up whatever flimsy excuse for all I care,the true reason for the refusal was because the US had a preferred candidate in the 2015 elections which wasn’t GEJ;the US knew fully well that the preponderance of consideration on which the electorate will vote was security and therefore decided to leave the then administration in the cold. This diplomatic maneuverings by the US created the avenue for the GEJ administration to approach the black market for the purchase of military hardware and also allowing it to loot the treasury in the process .The fact that the democratic president Barack Hussein Obama snubbed coming to Nigeria and insulted our ego has the power house of Africa twice during his eight years stint in the white house by choosing to go to our backyard Ghana left tongue wagging across the continent. Some may make excuse for the republican elected president Donald Trump and say the two times this refusal to sell weapons has occurred were during the reign of democrats in the white-house is untenable. The USA cannot abandon us in the days of adversity and come back with open arms when our existential threat has been eliminated. The main reason why the Trump administration has decided to sell the $600million worth 12 embraer A-29 super tucano fighter jets to us is to boost job creation at home; and in the same vein achieve its campaign promise and not our national security interest. The fact that many folks in Nigeria’s foreign affairs establishment are blowing trumpets to high heavens citing the new decision of US to sale military hardware as a Nigeria’s foreign policy success story is not only misleading but self-deceiving;we must see it as a Greek gift to think otherwise is to live in a fools paradise. We must not forget that the Trump administration is also proposing cuts in foreign aids to Nigeria. The United states of America cannot choose when it will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in the face of existential threat. The present administration will be wise to remember history; therefore a quick tweaking and recalibration of our bilateral relation to reflect historical realities is urgently needed. It is not that we should ignore our longstanding relation with the US, of course we admire the US democratic principles; in fact our presidential system of government is a copycat of the US presidential system. We cannot emulate the strongman dictatorial tendencies of the Russian federation, who have been with us through the thick and thin of all existential threat ; nor can we copy the communist system of the Chinese who were also with us in our days of adversities. But we must remember and recognize the countries who have stood with us in the days of trouble and make them our national security allies and treat the US as a fair weather friend and partner in progress in the days of peace.
http://thenationonlineng.net/us-nigerias-fair-weather-friend/

The Nigerian government cannot be trust with advanced weaponry. QED

gbegemaster:
The Nigerian government cannot be trusted with advanced weaponry. QED

But the Saudi govt can? Research Yemen.