₦airaland Forum

Thank you very much.
I've forgotten how full of government sycophants this nairaland military page is.
Its nauseating as usual.

JohnBullMySon:
be there and be comparing 1989 tiananmen protests that even brought economic reforms to China back then when it was underdeveloped. Egypt massacre was a political affair on a minority, just like shite, that's why you will not here about it.

To your opinion, yes people are justified to hate the military. In lekki people don't know about Bokoharam or bandits. The only killers they know are the military. You can't be killing and be protecting someone at the same time. It shows you that the reason many are soldiers is not to protect anybody, but rather to be paid salary, if your aim is to protect someone, you would not have the heart to kill Them. Nigerian army is not perfect, so it is the perfect civilians that should celebrate while being killed because they are fighting Bokoharam?? No blame citizens at all, na them put us for this situation. If you don't want to blame the army, then blame government that is sending poor soldiers to soil their name and then denying. As for people who are blaming military, they are right.

bidexii is obviously lying. Ihejirika was never given any money to buy jets or whatever. Their grouse is that he decimated boko haram while the northern elders were screaming for him to end the offensive.

giles14:
never know ihejirika was given hundreds of millions to buy MBT/ifv my first time seeing this.

An link?

Same way your mother is lousy in bed dear.

chefremy:
lol, good point, but am not hating, truth is i am happy cus the man is a nigerian and thats what binds us together and i am also happy for the igbos because they are lousy people

the impact is the 21billion dollars coming back to the country yearly.

philip0906:
Just look at what Africans are dragging...where they will bury a dead man

Useless culture with zero impact and zero value...Nonsense and black man

SHUT YOUR DIRTY MOUTH.
When the Amazon forest was recently on fire, was it your blockhead and buhari that put out the fire
E-Diot buharideen scum.

SCREW NIGERIA

flourishing247:
Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Imagine renouncing your heritage. The land of your birth!! No matter how bad a situation is, please stay patriotic!! I'm super proud to be a Nigerian.

Fiam!. na your LORD dey yarn.

Go look all your posts from b4 then come tell me who dey cast.

Na we born dat your T with DH and BAT.

No ever interrupt me again.

opusingi:
Niggah drop it!!!! Haedeybe na..... You see how you dey cast the Movement Which temple you dey sef.... Nna use ur head o

see small boy dey make mouth where SOLID Aye dey yarn.

Fear no even dey catch una again sef

Na people like you i dey use sharpen my 7.

I go yansh your sister in front of you and nah beg wey coward like u go beg.

If your liver reach,drop your location sharply...

Stinking Ju men...

hollah123:
we dey wait u, na here we go still write rip on top your matter. continue with your foolhardy

Fiam!!!
Who dey think
Dirty stinking Juus fill this nairaland
I dey smell dem from here.

*SPITs
Lol. See as dem dey make mouth anyhow
Meanwhile nah beg dem go dey beg when you catch dem for streets, touch dem small with metal.

Mini egede to you bro
Clear road!

be like nah one dirty eiye fall.

147
KF on guard

freemanbubble:
Shut up son. You know nothing
Humans hate what they don't understand
An unexamined life and a life without ruggedity is not worth living
He must be a stupid bird
Clip them all
Dodorima to my neo black brothers over there
Black is the colour
Africa map is the logo
One for seven

We are like hydra
When our head is chopped off
Then expect another head instantly as an out growth from other parts of the body
We don't die
We multiply
Death is only the beginning..........

Your grandmotha yansh there . Oloriburuku

EVarn:
I am truly sorry you feel this way. I simply spoke the truth of the matter, my intention was not to provoke a diatribe.

I am sure you have very strong opinions and illusions. It is normal, and you are very much entitled to having them. However,I will encourage you to move on from harboring juvenile illusions to genuinely seeking for a progressive way to live with current realities. Like I said, we must move beyond the opious haze of dreams and fantasies, and look to participating in the process of building a more unified and prosperous nation.

Debating whether a certain tribe owns heaven and earth or possesses the business acumen of a billy goat, will not help millions of our people living in extreme poverty.

Anyway,let's not derail too much.

Just like your mama dear boy, just like your mama.

Xbee007:
Note to self: @rugged7 is just a dumb bigot.

After taking all this time to "upgrade" this helicopter in europe...
And yet, they "upgrade" helicopters with no capacity for night fighting or better still, night vision.
It doesn't make sense.

bidexiii:
More...

bULLSHIT

Malawian:
This guy jonz seriously. I tend to love eiye organization. they move in batches and at any point, they have an eye view of the next batch before or after them. It is like a football field, one batch is at the beginning of the pitch, the next batch is at halfway line, another batch is at the end of the pitch and so on.They are usually 6 or 7 in a batch. I was really impressed the day I was walking practically next to their Capone after one of our final exams back on school, being that I know a whole lot of them, I was able to see their organization when the Capone turned around to beckon on the next batch. I didn't notice the Capone until he turned around to beckon.

Is it now a crime to pray?

Anyway, that was what was written by the Kenyan Newspapers

nemesis8u:
What led u to the idea ?

Yep. Trust the western media to embellish this.
They leave the substance of the issue in pursuit of aesthetics.

ignant:
Let me leave this here. Smh. http://www.todaysecho.com/off-duty-british-soldier-who-stormed-scene-of-kenya-terrorist-attack-commended/

Too many plain clothes people with guns at a terrorist incident can be a recipe for disaster.
Anybody can be a terrorist.
A proper cordone, secure perimeter & designated assault team is key.
Well,if it works for you guys, well done.
Can you clarify for me what the weapons carrying laws are in Kenya?
Can anybody legally bear fire arms?

SmallSimba:
Those folks were training with the Kenyan forces and they were together. Last time, even Ugandan troops came. The Kenyan forces have the capacity to deal with those terrorists quite well. However, there is nothing wrong with people volunteering. As you can see, there are many people who had pistols and turned up to fight. Kenyan law transforms all legal gun holders into police reservists during an attack such as this.

It is amazing how much we can achieve if we don't care who takes the credit

Bruv,

me and you can tell the difference between a non active old boer/muzungu with a firearm and an active specops agent on ground.

And it's not just that one guy; you can see 2 different people in my pix above.

reliable sources point to their being UK/Israeli specops.

anyway,it's not a blame game.

I'm just curious

Fidha254:
we'll because it's the one guy and I have been watching the whole thing unfold on both TV and radio and that guy has been mentioned several times on what he was doing there....

I remember even last time people thought these guys were from Israeli embassy ..Later it turned out they were just local private gun holders living nearby

You see wounded Nigerian soldiers and tons of stolen equipment and stolen weapons, RPG's etc and some people are claiming the base was not overrun.
Blind patriotism will not helpthe Nigerian Army.
We have to ask pertinent questions about their base defense teachings and tactics.
BHT have used the same modus operandi again and again to overrun military bases in the north.
After almost 10 years of insurgency, The Nigerian army still has no response to this.
No fire base support.
No fast helicopter QRF troop support.
No proper base defence and comms alert.
No mines laid at vulnerable areas of the base.
No trigger system of responding quickly that ensures that boko haram understand that anytime they attack a forwardbase, they are bound to be decimated.
No regular trainings for base attacks
.

CAUTION:

Clip 1 pic.twitter.com/vF6xjfy0qk

— Edward (@DonKlericuzio) January 15, 2019

Hence whenever boko haram arrives they all run away.
Look at all the grenades! They didn't even throw half of them at bokoharam b4 running away
Look at the equipment boko haram came with,you cant tellme they are better equipped than the Nigerian army.
The list goes on and on....
Their is a political game being played in the North.
They want this insurgency to never end because it is lining the pockets of key northern government and military officials.

OK

Understand that I'm not trying to belittle the Kenyan forces.

But still,why should the UK SAS or Israeli special forces be actively involved within the building itself?

I would understand if they were providing advisory support behind the scenes in a command and control vehicle.

What's the point of their high visibility if they are not actually involved in direct action and kinetic response?

We know from experience around the worldthatonce they are on ground,they are ALWAYS involved in direct action.

So it's hard to believethey are not involved in clearing the hotel as well.

Fidha254:
non of those countries have troops engaging in direct confrontation with the terrorists, that guy was seen going in and comming out with survivors several times...


GSU recce are the ones deep inside clearing floor after floor then 'volunteers' like him, regular police and plainclothes police go in to get the survivors....

Kenyan Defense Forces praying before going into Nairobi complexwhere terrorists are holed up.

It is sad that africans have still not developed the capacity for managing these home grown terrorists.
Why invite the UK SAS and Israeli special forces tothe Nairobi incident.?
I would assume at least by now Kenyan special forces after the previous experience with the terrorists should be able to handle this new episode locally?

How the US and China collaborated to get nuclear material out of Nigeria — and away from terrorist groups By: Aaron Mehta
January 14

https://www.defensenews.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/01/14/how-the-us-and-china-collaborated-to-get-nuclear-material-out-of-nigeria-and-away-from-terrorist-groups/#.XDya8gFTJXI.twitter



WASHINGTON — At a staging ground in Ghana, a group of nuclear experts watched the clock and nervously waited for the news.

The team — a mix of American, British, Norwegian and Chinese experts, along with Czech and Russian contractors — were supposed to head into the Kaduna region of Nigeria to remove highly enriched uranium from a research reactor that nonproliferation experts have long warned could be a target for terrorists hoping to get their hands on nuclear material.

But with the team assembled and ready to go on Oct. 20, 2018, the mission was suddenly paused, with the regional governor declaring a curfew after regional violence left dozens dead. As American diplomats raced to ensure the carefully calibrated window of opportunity didn’t shut, the inspectors were unsure if the situation would be safe enough to complete the mission.

“Frankly speaking, yeah, I was nervous for my people on the ground and everyone else who was on the ground. It was important, but we had to go at it in a prudent way” said Peter Hanlon, assistant deputy administrator for material management and minimization, an office within the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration. “As someone responsible for this organization, I was nervous.”

Moving the nuclear material out of Nigeria has been a long-sought goal for the United States and nonproliferation advocates. But the goal has taken on increased importance in recent years with the rise of militant groups in the region, particularly Boko Haram, a group the Pentagon calls a major terrorist concern in the region.

Underscoring the importance of the operation: the key role China played in transporting and storing the plutonium, with the operation happening just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump made an explicit threat to China about growing America’s nuclear arsenal.

For those gathered in Ghana that evening, however, the focus was on watching the clock and hoping that the negotiators could come through and allow them to finally get the material out of Nigeria — and get everyone home safely.

‘Material that is attractive to terrorists’

It was the mid-1990s when Nigeria, with technical support and backing from China, began work on what would become Nigerian Research Reactor 1, located at Ahmadu Bello University in Kaduna. The location opened in 2004, and is home to roughly 170 Nigerian workers.

NIRR-1 is classified as a miniature neutron source reactor, designed for “scientific research, neutron activation analysis, education and training,” per the International Atomic Energy Agency. Essentially, the reactor powers scientific experiments, not the local grid.
NNSA administrator: Strengthening America through nuclear security
NNSA administrator: Strengthening America through nuclear security

While our infrastructure must be revitalized, one key part of the nuclear security enterprise is as capable as it has ever been.
By: Lisa Gordon-Hagerty

The design, however, used highly enriched uranium, or HEU, a type of nuclear substance often referred to by the general public as weapons-grade uranium. This kind of uranium forms the core of any nuclear weapons material, and the Nigerian material was more than 90 percent enriched, making it particularly attractive for anyone looking to use it.

Since NIRR-1 went online, however, improvements in technology meant that experiments involving highly enriched uranium could now be run with a lesser substance. Across the globe, the IAEA and its partners have worked to swap out weapons-grade material with lightly enriched uranium, or LEU, which is enriched at less than 20 percent, and hence unusable for weapons. In all, 33 countries have now become free of HEU, including 11 countries in Africa.

With just over 1 kilogram of HEU, the Nigerian material, if stolen, would not be nearly enough to create a full nuclear warhead. However, a terrorist group would be able to create a dirty bomb with the substance or add the material into a stockpile gathered elsewhere to get close to the amount needed for a large explosion.

In a statement released by the IAEA, Yusuf Aminu Ahmed, director of the Nigerian Centre for Energy Research and Training, was blunt about his concerns over keeping the weapons-grade material in his country. “We don’t want any material that is attractive to terrorists," he said.

And the nature of these types of reactors, used primarily for research, means they are ideal targets for terrorist groups looking for nuclear material, said Jon Wolfsthal, a nuclear expert who served as senior director for arms control and nonproliferation at the U.S. National Security Council from 2014 to 2017.
Recruits undergo training at the headquarters of the Depot of the Nigerian Army in Zaria, Kaduna State in north-central Nigeria, on Oct. 5, 2017. The Nigerian Army train recruits to tackle the threat of the Islamist group Boko Haram. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images)
Recruits undergo training at the headquarters of the Depot of the Nigerian Army in Zaria, Kaduna State in north-central Nigeria, on Oct. 5, 2017. The Nigerian Army train recruits to tackle the threat of the Islamist group Boko Haram. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images)

“They’re small reactors, they’re not power reactors where the fuel is so radioactive it kills you,” he said. “This is very attractive to a proliferation point of view, and they are research reactors, so they are often at universities without high security.”

All of which gave the governments involved incentive to get the material out of Nigeria sooner rather than later, and which led to the group of experts sitting in Ghana, waiting for a call.

The day of

It wasn’t until Oct. 22 — two days after the initial delay — that American diplomats, working with their Nigerian counterparts, were able to get an exemption to the curfew in Kaduna and prepare to roll out. But for security reasons, an operation that usually took days would have to happen in just one 24-hour period.

At 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 23, a Russian Antonov An-124 cargo plane touched down in Nigeria. Aboard were the team of experts, but also a TUK-145/C — a 30-ton cargo container designed specifically for moving such uranium from place to place and doing so securely.

From the outside, the TUK-145/C looks like a large, silver cylinder, designed to keep its precious cargo safe even in the event of a plane crash — as part of the safety testing before certification, the container is put into a pool of jet fuel, with the whole thing then lit on fire for 60 minutes. If you somehow could cut it down the middle, the container would appear to be two parts — an outer shell for security, and an innermost cask containing the spent uranium rods.

Both the plane and the TUK-145/C are owned and operated by the Russian Sosny Research and Development Company, a specialty firm that has been used in other HEU removal procedures.

Loading the equipment off the plane took hours, as did the trip from the airstrip to the reactor. But finally, the team arrived at the reactor around 9 a.m. The group now included U.S. State Department security and Nigeria’s Army First Division, considered a top-end unit of the Nigerian military.

Tiffany Blanchard-Case, a nuclear expert from the National Nuclear Security Administration, was one of the officials on the ground to oversee the transfer. She described a “grueling” day as the team rushed to condense what needed to be done into the secure window.
Technical experts from Nigeria's Centre for Energy Research and Training stand over the miniature neutron source reactor and prepare to load the HEU reactor core into an interim transfer cask. (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration)
Technical experts from Nigeria's Centre for Energy Research and Training stand over the miniature neutron source reactor and prepare to load the HEU reactor core into an interim transfer cask. (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration)

“No one was concerned about breaks, no one was concerned about lunch, everyone was just working 100 percent in order to make sure we could meet this schedule,” she said. “A long day for everyone.”

Getting at the uranium is tricky business. The reactor core, which holds the actual material, is located at the bottom of a six-meter-deep pool. Above the pool, technicians have to create a platform and then center a vessel, known as the interim transfer cask, above the core. The cask contains a grapple, which reaches into the reactor and lifts out the core; when the core is loaded in, a plug is placed over the core and the cask is sealed, loaded onto the Skoda shipping cask, and then that unit is sealed inside the TUK-145/C.

Replacing HEU with LEU in research reactors naturally requires caution, as anything nuclear-related comes with risks. But the Nigerian mission was particularly difficult because of security concerns, Hanlon said. He noted that Boko Haram, while not in the Kaduna region, has been operating in Nigeria for quite some time.

“We had concerns about the security on the ground, in the region. Working very closely with the U.S. embassy, there were additional security requirements put upon us and limitations for us on having people on the ground at the facility itself,” Hanlon said.

Hanlon and Blanchard-Case declined to discuss details of the security, other than to say it was heavy and that the U.S. State Department added extra forces as part of the agreement to allow the team to go in.

Alice Hunt Friend, a regional expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that Boko Haram is not necessarily “active” in the region, but added that an attack by the group in that area shouldn’t be ruled out.

“The city is a transport hub, pretty much right between Abuja and Kano on the main route. It is also in the belt that has experienced a lot of communal violence over the past 10 years, so I can also imagine that security for HEU sites would be of concern more generally, even absent a specific threat,” she said. “With much of the Nigerian military concentrating on the northeast, I would imagine security for sites in Kaduna is inconsistent.”

Boko Haram is just one threat that worries security teams on the ground, said Peter Haynes, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

“Fueled by ethnic and religious differences, there has been lots of violence in the Kaduna region in the last six months, but that has been between Fulani Muslim herders and Christian villagers,” said Haynes, adding that it is not “uncommon as of late to have curfews to dampen the communal violence.”

While the technicians were able to leave the country once their daylong mission was complete, security on site remained thick for the next five weeks as administrators worked the logistics and clearances needed to fly nuclear material over other nations' airspace. Asked about the security level during this down period, Dov Schwartz, an NNSA spokesman, said that “extensive planning went into ensuring the removed highly enriched uranium was safe and secure prior to transport."

"All of our partners understood that operational security was paramount,” Schwartz said. "The world is a safer place today as a result of the determined work to remove this weapons useable Uranium from Nigeria.”

Finally, on Dec. 4, the HEU was escorted by the Nigerian military toward the An-124, loaded onto the aircraft and sent on its way to its final destination.

The material was heading for China.
The TUK-145/C, carrying a load of highly enriched uranium from the Nigerian reactor, is loaded onto a plane headed for its final destination: China. (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration)
The TUK-145/C, carrying a load of highly enriched uranium from the Nigerian reactor, is loaded onto a plane headed for its final destination: China. (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration)

China’s role

The removal operation cost roughly $5.5 million, with the United States contributing $4.3 million. The United Kingdom ($900,000) and Norway ($290,000) also chipped in. But while it didn’t contribute money, China’s role in the operation was outsized — and occurred as the war of words from the Trump administration toward Beijing was reaching a fever pitch, one that did not die down in the weeks to come.

As the October operation was just hours from starting, U.S. President Donald Trump took to the press to discuss nuclear material and China.

“Until people come to their senses, we will build [the nuclear arsenal] up," Trump told reporters just hours before the Nigeria operation was to begin. "It’s a threat to whoever you want. And it includes China, and it includes Russia, and it includes anybody else that wants to play that game. You can’t do that. You can’t play that game on me.”

By the time the Antonov plane — carrying the HEU, along with American inspectors and security — arrived at Shijiazhuang airport in China on Dec. 6, the arrest of a Chinese technology executive in Canada had inflamed fears of a trade conflict between the two countries.

Once the material landed in China, local officials took possession of the uranium, marking the end of the Nigerian mission — but not necessarily the end of the material.

Hanlon acknowledged the United States doesn’t know what China will do with the material, noting they could dispose of it in whatever way they see fit. But Wolfsthal, the former National Security Council staffer, doesn’t think Beijing will let it go to waste.

“My guess is China will reprocess it and then recycle some of the materials,” Wolfsthal said. “It could end up in China’s stockpile after being reprocessed, or used for civilian fuel. But getting it out of Nigeria is the biggest thing.”

In a statement released by the IAEA, Shen Lixin, deputy director general of the department of business development and international cooperation at the China National Nuclear Corporation, said the project “manifests the determination and joint effort of several governments and organizations in preventing nuclear proliferation."
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, greets Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari during a plenary session of the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit on April 1, 2016, in Washington, D.C. The summit was organized to highlight accomplishments and make new commitments toward reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, greets Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari during a plenary session of the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit on April 1, 2016, in Washington, D.C. The summit was organized to highlight accomplishments and make new commitments toward reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“This is also a demonstration of CNNC’s meeting its social responsibilities and the commitment to peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” the statement continues. “CNNC is more than willing to work together and cooperate whole heartedly with relevant parties to facilitate other MNSR conversion projects.”

That the United States and China were able to ignore politics to get the HEU removal done shouldn’t be a surprise, Wolfsthal said. Traditionally, countries that supply uranium to partners around the world take that material back if needed.

“Even though the national level conversation is really poor because of trade and other issues, the technical collaboration between laboratories, between nuclear engineers, that’s generally gone pretty well,” he said. He added that China has invested heavily in LEU over the last decade, and therefore also has an interest in encouraging others to switch to that technology.

Whether that cooperation continues if relations between the two nations continue to deteriorate will be a true test going forward. On Jan. 3, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for China, urging American citizens to use caution when traveling, as the Chinese government may detain Americans.

And an agreement to develop new nuclear technology between CNNC and TerraPower, an American nuclear firm led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, appears doomed due to American restrictions on technology sharing with China.

Hanlon, for his part, is optimistic that China and the U.S. will continue to work on nuclear security.

“These nuclear security efforts of removing this dangerous material, most countries agree with that,” he said. “That work has continued unabated.”

SMH. @HQNigerianArmy
forces always seizing 3 or 4 AKs, a few magazines and some bullets. While BHT empty whole garrisons of weapons and logistics and post it on facebook.

BabaOwen:

Maybe, without the cowards and the skewed military quota system benefiting exclusively Gambaris...

We might actually have had a far better country and Military.

Ever thought of it that way?

Which for your information,is the right & smartest way to reason.

Grow small brain ni..

GeneralFarouq:
This is the smartest write up have read so far

Your mama titi there....

Come abroad naa,make dem dash u the racism. You bloody oyiboman yansh-licker.

Dem go clear all your doubts sharply, about you're being a beautiful monkey.

Peace out and your mama titi again.

Anu Mpama

mogbojaiye:
U be fool o

Even when the white men left your land were u still able to coordinate yourself ,,,,,it is people like you dat get involved in crimes overseas with the mindset of they robbed our fatherland, ,,bro u will rot in jail, was it not your so called forefather that betrayed themselves and sold them selfs out all because of mare MIRROR or DRY GIN, ,bro better get sense

Wole shoyinka should have rejected the noble award years back because the white men took us as slaves,he accepted it because no b him day carry as slave na e forefather ,,,stop living in the past and move on nigger,,,no time for hate

Peace

Bloody illiterate. Go and read your father's history.

mogbojaiye:
Did day steal from u or ur forefather?

When the oyibo people were coming to africa tocome and steal, did they have any reason to be there & did they have any visa?

Nwodosis:
If you don't have reason to be in another man's country, why should you be there?
Can one move from his village to Abuja without money nor contacts of anybody to go and hustle?