Boko Haram and United States’ Hypocrisy
News this week that the United States donated $5 million (to cover training and equipment) to the Multinational Joint Task Force fighting Boko Haram left me depressed. I became convinced that the US has all along been paying lip service to this war against Boko Haram. How can the US donate this miserable amount for the war against Terror? The money cannot even cover the cost of just one attack helicopter. Obviously, this is in continuation of US’s tacit support for Boko Haram. After the abduction of the Chibok girls, the US government made so much noise about helping Nigeria; but that was where it ended. Nothing concrete followed.
Many will still remember the U.S. Department of State spokesperson, Jen Paski justifying why the US refused to sell Cobra attack helicopters to Nigeria. It was shocking listening to Paski saying that the U.S. refused to sell the helicopters because it was concerned the military had no capacity to operate and maintain them. She added that there were also concerns over the protection of civilians during military operations. This same US government caught Osama Bin Laden alive and killed him with one of his wives. It is heartwarm- ing that Nigeria shamed the US by going to Russia for equipment and we got the job done by evicting the terrorists from occupied territories. The scope, nature and content of the US’ support for Nigeria in the struggle against terrorism have been abysmal. Nigeria should look beyond US and move closer to Russia and China if we want to win this war against terror.