A 90mm gun-armed Panhard Sagaie AFV of the Nigerian Army near Marte, northern Borno.
THE GUARDIAN
29 December, 2013
MINISTER of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, has said that Nigeria is working to secure the support of Cameroun to halt infiltration by insurgents from the Cameroun border.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja, Maku
observed that stamping out insurgency remains the topmost priority of the Federal Government, adding that some achievements have been recorded in efforts to containing terrorism in the states of Borno and Yobe in the last one year.
He said: “The recent attacks on Bama, as we know, came from across the border with Cameroun. We are working hard to reach out to the Camerounian government and other international agencies to ensure that we continue to put pressure on the insurgents from both sides of the boundary, so that at the end, by the grace of God, we would witness greater successes in 2014.
“What is clear is that in the year 2013, tremendous success was made and most of the insurgents that infiltrated other states from the North East were picked up. Some were picked up as far away as Lagos and Ogun, and a number of them are in detention, and trial is going on gradually.”
Maku noted that the massive
deployment of men and materials
through the establishment of the 7th
Division of the Nigerian Army in
Maiduguri has stemmed the tide of
attacks in the region. He stressed that due to huge investments required to set up an Army Division, government has prioritised the provision of funds to construct military barracks and other infrastructure, as well as the training of personnel and the provision of necessary equipment to
wipe out the activities of insurgents in the North East.
The Minister further stated that the
Federal Government is intervening in
the economic recovery of the North East, following the devastation and socio-economic setback suffered by the sub-region due to the insurgency.
“The President in the Economic Forum
on the North East unfolded a new
agenda for the economic support of the North East. From this year’s budget, provision is now being made to really give the North East support.
“What is seen in the budget is not the
end of the matter. There will be a lot of other support coming in, and what will unfold will enable the Federal
Government, international agencies,
friendly governments abroad and also the private sector to make special
contributions for the development of
the North East,” he said.
He stressed that despite inherited
security challenges, which were mainly induced by local politics in the North East, with severe consequences on the economic growth in the region, President Jonathan recorded tremendous successes in economic and social development in the last three years.
Beegeagle's Blog 
Step in the right direction, now give the boys teeth to eat
I think we will begin to see things happening as the 7th Division beds in and more men and equipment are in place. We know that SF troops would have carried out recce missions in and around the border with Cameroon (on both sides), so it is the right thing to publicly dialogue with the Cameroonian side and if no co-operation, proceed with covert operations, regardless of what anyone thinks.
Security of the NE and the country is paramount.
Why should the FG take permission from the camerounian and french governments before carrying out hot pursuit or cross-border attack on BH militants inside cameroun?
God help us in Nigeria!
Suspected US Spy drone crashes into building in ibadan.@Oga Beegeagle,have you come across it in the tribune
Not at all o.
And if true, what was it doing there? Was that a friendly maneouvre or brazen recce? What was it doing at Ibadan whereas the flashpoints such as Gwoza, Bama and Gamboru are all situated 1,500km down the road from Ibadan in a northeasterly direction?
Because Nigeria has been sold and US boots are on d ground ….by GEJ .as I said b4 Nigeria and France are heading for war…..if only u all know what we see
The “drone” in Ibadan is not a real one but just an RC toy owned by a well known person, Engr Folayan of SKANNET. He did not calibrate well so it went out of radio range. You can actually buy yours on amazon UK or US. If you want one u could go to aliexpress.com and purchase it wit or ATM for as low as US$12
http://t.co/kReenMCRfa
I think we have had enough dialogue with cameroon. Let us stop this diplomatic nonsense. Terrorists should be pursued into cameroon and anywhere else. Jonathan is showing too much weakness once again. Every other country in this world would be using harsh words by now, or at least would be shelling boko haram bases in cameroon, but we have to keep saying “please”,
@Oga igbi, heard you loud and clear on the other thread. Will try to contribute to discussions when I can and have something to say.
I agree with less talking now if no movement from Cameroon.
hmmm…
U.S spy drone in Nigeria???
http://tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/news/lead-stories/item/29586-flying-object-crashes-into-home-in-ibadan-%E2%80%A2controversy-trails-mission-of-spacecraft-%E2%80%A2object-believed-to-be-us-drone.html
lol thats a DJI Phantom, NOT A SPY DRONE, just a toy basically.
@Colonel,
This device is a quad copter type of RPV. I’ll geusstimate flight time is around 30mins +or- depending on payload.
This is most likely some tech savy person’s latest toy, not a US drone.
Our journalists are so so ignorant or lazy or both. Na wa o.
I actually thought the same way until i saw the big hole(in the ceiling) in the picture which is not commiserate with the size/weight of the RPV.
Something is a bit off somewhere…
@Naija Seal.
you took the words out of my mouth. E.g. i still cant understand why in this day and age with internet at everyone’s disposal journalists wont do ordinary basic background research. You still hear press reports talking of soldiers equipped with ‘Armored Tanks’ or even ‘Armoured tankers’.
Na God go save us from Naija press.
While reporting on the incident that happened in Maidugri, a Punch newspaper reporter mentioned that the government has replaced the damaged helicopters with new “Mi-35 fighter jets”!! They (the Nigerian press) have perfected the art of spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) with the sole objective of making profit.
http://www.punchng.com/news/30000-nigerians-still-stranded-in-central-african-republic/ I was actually wondering with the escalation of violence in CAR, if there are no Nigerian there, this just confirmed my suspicion.
Una thanks jo. That toy US drone? As for the CAR (oga 84 thanks), while others are evacuating their nationals, I wanted 2 ask yesternight but was 2 sleepy.30k, na ships we need’o. O if we had a LDH… Oga Beegs, pls can we get a CAR Post, I thinks, its become 2 big 2 ignore.
Oga Ifiok, I suspect CAR is landlocked, so Na Airforce get the show.
Dont know if their haulage capacity is sufficient though???
I know that CAR is land lock. If we had strategic sea lift assets, move 4 charlies into CAR, lift people to Congo Brazzaville (negotiated of course) and move evacuees by sea, we generate more sorties and move those folks out of harm’s way way faster than if the Charlies had to fly to Nigeria!
I have long advocated on this blog, for the nigerian armed forces to triple in size, and improve ten fold in it’s sophistication. A strong and capable military covers a multitude of sins.
All generals retired for lack of space should be reinstated, imagine generals Onwuamaegbu, Isah, Ngubane, Ndefo etc retired already ?
Nigeria needs a military that befits it’s size, wealth and status. Any politicians that doesn’t understand this concept had better resign, tribe or sectional affiliation be damned.
Its time we demand more from the extremely poor leadership nigeria has been cursed with since our independence.
Our armed forces should be at least 375,000 strong. We should be aiming to out do algeria, egypt and Morocco, and not monkey about sailing up and down in a virtually unharmed NNS Thunder.
Algeria is working on Its second wing of SU-30 MKA’s, and NAF is still tooling about in a few alpha jet trainers, for no conceivable reason.
We have got the money and the need for the damn jets.
Nigerians are a great and highly regarded people, but we are constantly represented by mental midgets.
The least we can do, is to call a spade, a spade.
Let’s stop celebrating ignorance and mediocrity in the name of patriotism.
Our poor leadership is killing the dream that was once Nigeria.
We need the best and brightest from amongst us to step forth and lead.
The rest of us should learn how to be good followers. Recognize talent and merit for what it is.
Anyway, I am done ranting for now.
we also need an electricity and transport network befitting or wealth and size as well as an educational and health system worthy of our size.
Maybe I’m a bedwetting liberal, but all of those things are prerequisites to stability, which is a prerequisite for security. We do not need to keep firefighting
As I said, a strong and capable military covers a multitude of sins.
It’s a national tool that represents our pride and honour as a nation.
You are also British, and you need no lectures in this regard.
Furthermore, many a third world nation has used the pride and structure invested in it’s military institutions to jump start civil development such as mechanized farming,manufacturing etc.
The instability in the Sahel, Central Africa and within Nigeria would have been less, if the Nigerian Army was still the big bad fixer it used to represent.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/military-bombards-insurgents-in-borno-village/167600/
Says battle z ongoing btw special forces nd boko haram. Alfa jets also at work.
Oga Doziex, I couldn’t agree with you more. However we have a serious problem. Our Finance Minister/co-ordinating minister for the economy, a PhD holder from Harvard, a former Deputy MD of the World Bank and a highly erudite and educated woman for whom I have a lot of respect, is on record as having said that the military is an unproductive sector of the Nigerian Economy!! Thus you have a situation where the capital vote for the 3rd quater of 2013 for the millitary is yet to be released as at December 2013 (when we should be talking of monitoring capital expenditure for the 4th quarter). Thus the Navy misses an agreed instalmental payment on the incoming P8N OPVs being built in China. If such a highly educated technocrat in Govt (our FINANCE MINISTER) does not see the need for properly equipping our millitary , how much more a ‘simple’ politician? GOD help us all!!
Her opinion be damned. Who cares what she thinks? We are in the middle of full-blown CTCOIN and counterpiracy operations and she does not realise how productive the military are even at this particular time of all eras or are any Nigerian lives expendable? Is she out of touch with reality? Is there any professional military which is an internal revenue service or which is run as a commercial venture anywhere on earth? Oh, because she is chauffeured around in bullet-proof jeeps, she can afford to talk some tripe about relevance and productivity?
Rewind to all the internal conflicts since 1980. Would there be a Nigeria to collect forex on behalf of or disburse same in the name of IF not that the military have held this country together? How much more productive can the military get in a country where mere armed robbers now operate with RPGs and have the cops mostly outgunned?
That woman is out of touch with the Nigerian reality. She might as well go back to Washington now. What is all this unreal drivel that I hear coming from her?
Last time I checked, she was trying to create a “rewards system” around procurement when she “promised” to make more naval platforms available to the NN if they are able to achieve a reduction in illegal bunkering at sea. Just because she came to commission some Shaldag and OCEA FPB 72 Mk.II FPCs? What if those were OPVs and corvettes? She would ask that the FOC be permanently strapped to the capital ships so that nothing happens to them?
Oga Beegz, I share your anger and totally agree with your analysis of this diabolical situation.
However I am also simply saddened and bewildered by the fact that if such a highly educated, internationally exposed, erudite and ‘technocrat’ member of Govt who also happens to be our Finance Minister can hold such a ‘myopic view’ of our military – (i.e. that they are not a productive sector of our economy), at a period when our National Security and indeed the very corporate existence of our nation is under threat due to the activities of the BH terrorists, then we are in VERY serious trouble indeed. How then can we have a go at some of our politicians for their ‘cluelessness/ignorance’ when it comes to millitary matters and the need to properly equip our armed forces?
At first I did not believe that she could make such a statement which has far reaching ramifications, but watched an interview on AIT where 2 respected security and economic/public affairs analysts, quoted her and confirmed that she made these remarks and then went on to criticize her for toying with the security of the country by failing to release funds to the millitary/security agencies for capital projects.
This is quite troubling and as we do not have a substantive Defence Minister to fight their corner, the service chiefs and the CDS, together with the Directors of the SSS, NIA and other intelligence/security outfits MUST DEMAND to have a meeting with the President on this issue. Service men and women are dying because operational equipment is not being provided- and now we know why!.
There is education and education, it is not because someone has a degree that you should assume that person is intelligent. How many PhD fools have I encountered in my lifetime, and they were all extremely arrogant, thinking their PhD degrees gave them special powers. So because they spent some 3 to 4 years writing a thesis (after the masters degree), that means they are the most intelligent persons on earth ? Please !
Thank you, bro.
Perhaps our intelligence community need to commence remedial psy ops on this matter. About time
okonjo must go. I hold her personally responsable for all the deaths recorded on the hands of boko haram. Okonjo, you are the real cancer eating Nigeria as of today. One wonders who you are actually working for. Shame on you !
Seconded.
Oga Igbi, please take it easy!!
Whilst one is not happy with her views/stance on our millitary, there is nothing to be gained from attacking her person – and I say this with all due respect to you and your position.
The lady is internationally renowed and respected. She also happens to be our Finance Minister and a KEY member of President GEJ’s cabinet. Her current misguided (in my humble opinion) thinking and views on the military’s relevance in the scheme of things is unfortunately quite important. She also happens to holds the purse strings. We (on this blog) do not- and this is FACT.
She simply needs to be made to understand in a language she understands, that SECURITY is the first and MOST IMPORTANT business of Govt and that unless a country is stable and its territorial integrity is secure, would-be investors will not invest and all tax/revenues accruable to Govt will not be collected. To ensure that a secure environment is achieved, a strong and well equipped millitary/security aparatus is essential and non-negotiable sina qui non.
The US, China, Japan, India, France, UK, Germany, Brazil and Russia are the leading economies in the world today. They ALL have a strong and well equipped millitary, devoting at least between 1-2 percent of their GDP to millitary spending.
That our Finance Minister does not seem to understand this simple concept shows the scale of the battle our millitary/security agencies face within our govt. Let’s see how we in our own small way can rationally and logically with facts and figures/statistics point out to her the error in her current thinking and influence her to change same. Calling her names will not solve the problem.
Very calmly and well articulated, Mighty Yagz. Even I was very angry when I reacted.
That said, if the woman were President, BH would have taken over the Governors Lodges in Yobe and Borno by now. Her security awareness and consciousness fringes on a very round ZERO. Her pronouncements on national security issues are decidedly naïve and most depressing.
Mighty Yakz and Oga Doziex, good 2 hear from u!
Brothers, remember that insecurity is an industry, people earn a living from it! LOL. But seriously, I find it hard 2 believe that gov is so dumb, it scares me to think that its deliberate!
Oga Beeg, rest assured if the woman was Head of State her views would be different. When the buck stops at your desk, you tend to see things from a different view point. Ask GEJ, am sure he is a lot better informed after all his security briefings after each BH embarrassment.
Oga Yag, I don’t mean any disrespect to Prime Minister Okonjo.I even gave her the benefit of the doubt during her last fuel subsidy removal attempt. I think Oga Beeg and Oga Igbi used the right tone.
In fact, considering the ill will I have being harboring for her and her military starving policies, I think Oga Igbi was quite polite.
It’s her motivation that is bothering me. As you alluded, she is simply too smart to be authoring such dumb anti-military policies.
Maybe we can relocate her family to Borno state, and see if she thinks different.
Being a woman is no excuse either. There are plenty of women politicians in Washington and Britain that are hawks on defense issues. In fact our most hawkish politician on defense matters in Nigeria is a woman, Senator Anyanwu.
So until she is willing to send her sons to Bornu, short changing our military of military assets to win this war is tantamount to treason.
And by sanctioning her policies, President GEJ is flirting with an impeachable offense.
Guys Guys- please I understand your sentiments and anger with the Finance Minister on this issue – and indeed share them. However someone once said that – ‘intelligence is the ability to successfully adapt to your environment’ – so the question is how do we get our Hon Finance Minister to see the millitary as an essential/strategic assest that needs to be properly funded and equipped so as to perform its constitutionally assigned role- which is to safeguard the territorial integrity of our dear beloved country? A good suggestion has been made that she should embark on a tour of the war zone in the North East- I would add for good measure that she should be compelled to undertake this tour and spend the night at one of the army’s FOBs. Since she seems to see things only in terms of ‘expenditure/return on investment terms’, the millitary should organise a briefing with charts and graphs showing the direct correlation between funding for capital projects (e.g. OPVs, OPCs, corvettes etc) and the corresponding reduction in the security threat/loss of revenue (e.g. reduction in bunkering activities, piracy, illegal fishing within our EEZ). I am serious about this because if someone of her renown and stature has such a blinkered view of our millitary, then the millitary/intelligence/security aparatus has to embark on a serious charm offensive.
Following on from my earlier posting on this matter, even in the United States, the millitary (i.e. Pentagon) knows that sometimes it has to embark on a charm offensive to woo politicians (members of congress- in respect of the legislature, or the secretary/deputy secretrary/asst secretary for defence, or Army or Navy or Airforce etc- in respect of the executive) when they want to secure funding for some of their millitary projects. In the UK, the Chief of the Defence Staff or the service chiefs have been known to try to woo politicians (Defence Secretary, Prime-minister, junior ministers with responsibilites for the Army, Navy and Airforce) to increase or maintain funding for millitary projects (e.g the 2 Future Aircraft Carrier project or renewal of the Trident ballistic missile submarine programmes come to mind) – it’s called ‘lobbying’ – and that’s what happens in a democracy. It’s just unfortunate that in our case this has to be done when the millitary is fighting an insurgency within our country’s borders- but’s that’s the card we have been dealt – and we have to deal with it. Let’s not forget that our Finance Minister is not stupid- she is highly intelligent and well respected internationally – her presence in President GEJ’s cabinet gives credence to our Govt with international financial institutions. It’s simply a question of convincing her that expenditure on security matters is essential and non-negotiable.
Sorry, but given all the evidence, she is incredibly stupid.
pls don’t blame d minister,if d military perform well den we can den chase minister
how can they perform well if they are not given the tools ?
with this logics, she is putting the lives of the soldiers and the lives of civilians in great danger. I dare her to relocate to maiduguri and keep saying that. As far as it is not her life which is in danger she can say things like that.
My oga, the politicians in the capitol don’t need the charm offense when the threat is existential, clear and present! Then who says that she will agree to go?
But then we all seem to 4get that GEJ is responsible for this!
As for that woman, I say allow BH free passage and give them her address and pick the up afterwards and send them back to Cameroun or any where for all I care, if she survives, then I GRANTEE U THAT SECURITY WILL GET PRIORITY!
seconded, actually we should just relocate her office to sambisa forest.
Let us “put her office where her mouth is”.
@Oga Igbi, seriously the lady is not the problem. The past corrupt practises in the military is all that the woman is trying to fight… ask the more serious military top brass even they do understand her logic
Oga, you talk sense. And it has been serially highlighted here on this platform that the MOD is a hopeless cesspit; terribly failing the military boys. Therefore, I implore the Finance Minister to directly supervise the process of acquiring the hardware for the military, and bring her formidable forensic accounting to bear whilst at it. That way her position will be well articulated, and she would have Nigerians on-side, military or otherwise.
This video tells it all
First of all the Nigerian military is not corrupt.
And starving the military while we are at war is not the best way to fight corruption.
I am sorry but your reasoning is not correct, and please don’t use expressions like the following to validate the incoherent behavior of Okonjo : “ask the more serious military top brass even they do understand her logic”. We are not french, we know that not giving the military the funds to fight a war against genocidal terrorists who are killing our people is a behavior which flirts with treason? And please could you give the details of the “past corrupt practises in the military” you are talking about ? I can give you hundreds of cases of corruption in the political class which happened in the lat five years or you could just use google yourself. The soldiers are risking and losing their lives because they are not being provided with the right assets. You can’t possibly think it is right.
The “drone” in Ibadan is not a real one but just and RC toy owned by a well know person engr folayan of skannet he did not calibrate well so it went out of radio range u can actually buy your on amazon UK or Us if you want one u could go to aliexpress.com and purchase it wit or ATM for as low as $12
Fight corruption. Don’t tell me that u
honestly believed urself! She told u
her hands were clean? Abeg! What
we have are polithiefcians either with
or without uniform! And for the
records, we’ve had civilian rule for 15
yrs( by May 29), so enough of this
corrupt military horse…t!