₦airaland Forum

by Claire Mom


Details have unfurled on the scope of Nigeria’s military partnership with the United States, following increased collaboration between both countries in the wake of President Donald Trump’s re-designation of the West African nation as a country of particular concern (CPC).

Trump made the decision last October in response to allegations of a Christian genocide in the country, despite repeated rebuttals from the Nigerian government.

The following month, the US president threatened to send troops into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” to wipe out the terrorists killing Christians.

The warning, which was largely perceived as a proposed violation of international law and state sovereignty, prompted President Bola Tinubu to dispatch a high-level team, led by Nuhu Ribadu, national security adviser (NSA), to meet Pete Hegseth, US defence secretary.

After the meeting, Hegseth said his department was “working aggressively” with Nigeria to end the alleged persecution of Christians by jihadist terrorists.

Hegseth offered no details on the nature of the engagement.


DEMAND FOR A DRONE REFUEL STATION

Days after Ribadu’s meeting with Hegseth, the US began conducting intelligence-gathering flights over swathes of Nigerian territory.

Flight tracking data and current and former US officials said the contractor-operated aircraft used for the surveillance typically took off from Ghana and flew over Nigeria before returning to Accra, the Ghanaian capital.

At the time, it was unclear what information the flights were intended to obtain.

On Christmas Day, the US launched missile strikes on two terrorist enclaves in Bauni forest in Tangaza LGA, Sokoto state.

Nigeria’s ministry of foreign affairs said the “precision hits” stemmed from the exchange of intelligence and strategic coordination between both countries, and was in line with “established international practice and bilateral understanding”.

It was widely reported that the strike involved more than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles fired off a navy ship in the Gulf of Guinea.

But officials familiar with the details of the operation told TheCable that the strikes involved drones.

Advanced drones can fire precision shots using mounted weapons like rifles, missiles, or guided munitions, achieving high accuracy in tests and operations.

They are also capable of malfunctioning and depositing debris across distances.

Communities in Sokoto and Kwara states had reported explosions at the same time the US launched a fusillade of air strikes on ISIS terrorists.

The federal government later confirmed that the explosions in Kwara were caused by debris from the precision-guided munitions (PGMs) fired by the US.

Top officials from Nigeria, including the NSA, and the US, such as Allison Hooker, under-secretary of state, have since engaged in bilateral working group meetings.

An official familiar with the conversations between both countries told TheCable that the US had demanded to have a station in Nigeria where they can refuel their drones after trips from Accra.

Drones can be refuelled in multiple ways, depending on their design and fuel type, extending their operational range beyond battery or fuel limits.

Most consumer and commercial drones (battery-powered or fuel-based) are routinely recharged or refuelled on the ground at stations.

Hydrogen-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), for example, use methods like blowdown filling from high-pressure sources or boost compression to top up compressed tanks quickly.

TheCable understands that discussions on the subject have progressed and a north-eastern state has been designated as the station host.

“We’re not going to have boots on the ground. We’re not going to have military leg operation. They are only going to support Nigeria either in equipment or intelligence or something like that, not in a fighting capacity,” the official said.

“It would possibly be an advisory capacity — maybe training or things like that — which are already ongoing.”

The official noted that the US proposed Lagos or Abuja which was rebuffed on sensitive grounds.

The source added that the north-east was chosen because it hosts Nigeria’s drone operations.

The station would allow US officials fly in from Ghana, which is a hub for America’s military’s logistics network in Africa, to strategise on supporting Nigerian troops.


THE ‘SMALL TEAM’ IN TOWN

On Tuesday, Dagvin Anderson, the general in charge of US Africa Command (AFRICOM), said the US had dispatched a “small team” of troops to Nigeria following recent security cooperation between both countries.

Anderson’s disclosure sparked an uproar, seeing as it was the first official acknowledgement of US boots on the ground in Nigeria since the Christmas Day strike.

But an official familiar with the operation downplayed the gravity to TheCable.

“AFRICOM has always collaborated with Nigeria, there has always been US troops on the ground. The only thing that changed is the scope of their assignment,” the official said.

That new scope has now been assigned to the US 3rd special forces group, a former US official told TheCable.

The 3rd special forces group is designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defence, direct action, counter-insurgency, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, information operations, counter-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and security force assistance.

The group was primarily responsible for operations within the AFRICOM area of responsibility, as part of the Special Operations Command, Africa (SOCAFRICA). Its core area of operation is now Africa as part of a 2015 SOCOM directive.

In the past, the group has engaged in missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali, Ethiopia, the Congo, and Jordan.

Following Anderson’s statement, Christopher Musa, Nigerian minister of defence, explained that the US personnel are not combat troops.

Musa described the group as a small advisory team supporting intelligence gathering and training initiatives.

He did not disclose details regarding the size of the team, their arrival date, location, or stay duration.

But an official familiar with their operations told TheCable that the team played a role in coordinating the Christmas Day bombing.

Namaster:
Tinubu is a WEAK President.

The DISLOYAL Military is NOT helping matters.
After the COUP attempt, he has REFUSED to stay too long in Nigeria.

The coup SCARED him.
He has LOST control of the Military.

That's why the PDFile is attempting to establish a US Military Base in Nigeria.

To what END?

What Military assistance do they want to provide that CANNOT be provided WITHOUT staying in Nigeria?

What DRONE refueling station do they NEED that can't be provided by the part of the Nigerian Military responsible for Drone Maintenance here?

Even if they do NOT have the set up at the moment?

What is STOPPING them from UPGRADING the current set up in Nigerian Military Bases to serve their own DRONES?

The MOVE has ALWAYS been about a SNEAKY invasion of Nigeria by the US.
And the WEAK Tinubu is too PARALYZED to do anything about it.

Imagine trying to fight INSURGENCY in the North by establishing a BASE in Lagos.

MADNESS!

The NEXT President of Nigeria AFTER Tinubu must KICK OUT the PDFile's Army.

Flight tracking data and current and former US officials said the contractor-operated aircraft used for the surveillance typically took off from Ghana and flew over Nigeria before returning to Accra, the Ghanaian capital.

At the time, it was unclear what information the flights were intended to obtain.

xmasgift:
Tinubu isn't weak. Nigeria has some saboteurs as citizens who are bent on making sure the nation fails.

xmasgift:
Tinubu isn't weak. Nigeria has some saboteurs as citizens who are bent on making sure the nation fails.

Namaster:
T.

Imagine trying to fight INSURGENCY in the North by establishing a BASE in Lagos.

TheStoriesOfMan:
Both Tinubu and the elites are sabotaging the genuine efforts of those who wants to end this insecurity.

xmasgift:
Tinubu isn't weak.

Nigeria has some saboteurs as citizens who are bent on making sure the nation fails.

EkoIle1:
It is now abundantly clear that President Jonathan has finally bared his fangs confirming what was widely speculated. By declaring a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, he has intimidated and emasculated the governors of these States. We are witnessing a dangerous trend in the art of governance and a deliberate ploy to subvert constitutional democracy.

The body language of the Jonathan administration leads any keen watcher of events with unmistakable conclusion of the existence of a surreptitious but barely disguised intention to muzzle the elected governments of these states for what is clearly a display of unpardonable mediocrity and diabolic partisanship geared towards 2015.

Borno and Yobe states have been literally under armies of occupation with the attendant excruciating hardship experienced daily by the indigenes and residents of these areas. This government now wants to use the excuse of the security challenges faced by the Governors to remove them from the states considered hostile to the 2015 PDP/Jonathan project.

Let me be quick to say that this administration will be setting in motion a chain of events the end of which nobody can predict. Experience has shown clearly that actions, such as this one under consideration, often give root to radical ideologies and extremist tendencies, a direct opposite of the intended outcome of unwarranted and unintelligent meddlesomeness. The present scenario playing out in the country reminds one of the classical case of a mediocre craftsman who continually blames the tools of his trade for his serial failure but refuses to look at his pitiable state with a view to adjusting.


http://premiumtimesng.com/opinion/134435-jonathan-goes-for-broke-by-bola-ahmed-tinubu.html

Image123:
The same people who cried and prayed for Trump intervention will wail bitterly over the coming.

anonimi:
Can there be a more perfect description of Tinubu and his fellow propagandist liars in All Promises Cancelled, APC

The ones who scammed us into switching PDP prosperity for APC extreme poverty and corruption with insecurity from higher unemployment.

Tenses:
But you applaud when refinery was sited in Kaduna without a drop of crude oil.

If they carried out their last strike in Sokoto from gulf of Guinea then lagos is reasonably ideal for a drone refilling base.

The US of A is here to stay. Deal with it.

Pootle:
nothing like inside details this people dont let people know what ther real intension is until they strike

xmasgift:
Prosperity and PDP in the same sentence?

You got jokes.

thisweekng:
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Chief Olawale Edun has said the last time Nigeria’s economy looked stable was about a decade ago.

He made this statement during his maiden press conference as Minister of Finance where he outlined President Bola Tinubu’s vision, agenda and strategy for the economy.

He said, “I think as we all know, we are not where we should be. The economy is barely growing above the rate of population growth.

“But it was not always so, and I think in trying to look at the way forward, if we now have a situation of slow growth, double-digit inflation, weak/depreciating exchange rate, as well as security concerns that are resulting in an economy that is not growing and not taking Nigerians out of poverty.

“If we think back to the last time when the economy was stable- when it was growing, when inflation was low, and the interest rate was affordable, that period was about a decade ago. Growth was about 6% in 2013 and 2014.”
Private sector to drive the economy

https://nairametrics.com/2023/09/01/the-last-time-nigerias-economy-was-stable-was-about-a-decade-ago-wale-edun/

richiemcgold:
We need more of this partnership and coordinating attacks

insidelife22:
We want a clinical result of the number of terrorists eliminated and pictures too.

Obaofaba:
They are not here to fight terrorists but to negotiate oil deal 🤝.

anonimi:
I don’t have any joke. Except you know that Wale Edun got jokes.

Do you know if data and statistics from various sources have jokes too

BreconHills:
All you need to look at is the oil prices during the period. If the gains in the PDP years had been well managed, Nigeria would be better off. If indeed the money was spent on development then we would like to know where that development was.

Every government during the boom years owes an explanation.

Because every government during independence has mismanaged Nigerias prosperity not its poverty. Whether Gowon in the 70's, IBB during the Gulf war, GEJ during the oil price boom. All of them. And this is why I have a soft spot for PMB. The guy was playing dice with gravel while previous generations used gold bars.

Obaofaba:
Don't you think it's better for it to be sited at Enough or Anambra State?

Both are very close to the North and both harbour terrorists as well.

Lagos is further away.

What do you think 🤔?