Nigeria’s Chief of Air Staff, Sadique Abubakar, revealed at a meeting with selected media representatives on 4 December that Nigeria is still struggling to buy weapons from the international community – and especially from the US – to fight Boko Haram. Abubakar said that only Pakistan has agreed to sell 10 trainer planes, while some combat helicopters were expected from Russia. This is not the first time that the army has complained that the US and its allies are not willing to sell it weapons. Under former president Jonathan, it was a common refrain as the US declined to sell weapons to Nigeria because of human rights concerns about how the army treated civilians in the fight against Boko Haram.

Things were expected to improve under President Buhari, who replaced the top brass of the army – but nothing has changed. The army has been responsible for several extrajudicial killings including the deaths of over 300 Shi’as in Kaduna as well as the recent accusation by Amnesty International that the army extra-judicially killed 150 unarmed youths in the South East who were involved in pro-Biafra demonstrations. The military has denied the allegations, which is not unusual as the army has never accepted responsibility for such killings (see Nigeria Politics & Security – 21.11.16).

Turning to Russia

The military needs new weapons as the recent resurgence in Boko Haram attacks in the North East have been partly blamed on the fact that weapons are ageing due to long use and an inability to acquire new equipment to bolster what is on the ground. Not surprisingly, the government has turned to Russia again, which also sold T72 tanks to Nigeria under Jonathan that were instrumental in pushing back Boko Haram, and re-capturing several territories from the insurgents.

Russia has shown it has no reservations about allegations of human rights abuse in prosecuting the war against Boko Haram, which suits Nigeria’s position. President Buhari needs all the weapons to finish off the Boko Haram war and if the Western world will not supply them, like his predecessor, Buhari would have to turn to the countries that are willing to help.

In a message to troops on 4 December, the Chief of army staff, Major General Tukur Buratai, said that December is a time of decisions for troops on the war front as it is the month the army would have to completely eradicate Boko Haram or risk being stuck with the group for the long term. It is not clear why Buratai said this, but it is already a year since the December 2015 deadline to defeat Boko Haram was given, and the group is continuing to stage deadly attacks one year later. It is not expected, therefore, that Boko Haram will be defeated this December either.