Why military aid lost value under Jonathan –US agency

The Centre for International Policy, a United States-based public research agency, has released an infographic detailing why the US military and police aid, arms sales and military training to Nigeria decreased during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The CIP, through its project, The Security Assistance Monitor, listed many human rights abuses by the Nigerian security forces and corruption as responsible for the decline in the Nigeria-US security cooperation.

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The infographic surveyed the US military and police aids to Nigeria from 2009 to 2015, and reported a sharp drop in aids from 2012 to 2015.

According to the infographic, entitled, ‘US-Nigeria Security Cooperation 2009-2015’, the agency alleged that basic military supplies, such as bullets, failed to reach the front lines.

It also said that stolen soldiers’ salaries encouraged mutiny, adding that civilians’ distrust in the military prevented intelligence gathering.

It listed firearms, assault rifles, shotguns, grenades, mortars and combat vehicles as weapons allegedly stolen from the military.

The infographic also showed that the US training to Nigerian security forces dropped to an estimated 1,000 trainees in 2014 from an estimated 9,000 trainees from Nigeria, who benefitted from the US in 2009.

The Senior Research Associate for the Security Assistance Monitor, Mr. Colby Goodman, in an email sent to our correspondent on Sunday, said there was a 72 per cent decrease in US military and police aid to Nigeria from $15.5m in 2012 to $4.4m in 2015.

“The infographic also describes some of the key corruption and human rights issues President Muhammadu Buhari could address to help improve the US-Nigeria security relationship,” he added.

It will be recalled that in June 2015, Amnesty International charged Nigerian soldiers and their commanders with gross human rights violations, including alleged execution of some 7,000 innocent people for not producing Boko Haram members.

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The Defence Headquarters had said the AI report smacked of extreme bias, adding that it was unfair of the organisation to persist in efforts to discredit the military by seeking all avenues to stigmatise individual officers.

It said the allegations were purely meant to satisfy an agenda against the security agencies and the image of Nigeria before the international community.