The Presidency has blamed opponents of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and their religious collaborators for frustrating the early release of Super Tucano fighter jets by the US government to be deployed against insurgents in Nigeria.
A statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Sunday in Abuja, said the then US government, hiding under alleged poor interreligious relations between Christianity and Islam in the country, exacerbated by activities of certain anti-Buhari elements, rescinded their decision to send the fighter jets to the country.
The statement said the opponents of the administration were behind the then US government’s policy inconsistency towards the country.
The statement reads: “In 2015 the then newly-elected Buhari government requested US military support in the form of Super Tucano jet fighters for the Nigerian Air Force. The Nigerian military, security, and intelligence services repeatedly made this request. The US administration of the time concurred: the delivery of such jets would help deliver a critical turning point in Nigeria’s struggle against jihadist terrorists across the Sahel.
“Yet two years later, that jet delivery was rescinded, the reasons given that unless Nigeria improved its religious relations between Christianity and Islam then US support would not be forthcoming in this and many other areas.
“Such views were compounded by the constant lobbying of US Congress by the opponents of the Nigerian government who had lost the previous election, and many of their southern religious supporters—including Bishop Mathew Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Diocese of Sokoto, who, unsurprising, provides a supportive quote for the dustcover of the new edition of Campbell’s book. (Kukah even took to addressing the US Congress himself, briefing his audience on the history of coups in Nigeria—without, of course, mentioning that none had occurred since 1993, some 29 years ago).
“Fortunately, now today under a new US administration these jets have been delivered, and with it, a serious blow against the terrorists—with the supreme leader of Islamic State in West Africa and scores of other leaders of the group eliminated in airstrikes.
“It is also inconsistent to preach the need for stability but needlessly delay sharing military equipment in the form of jets – not least when it is now proven they would have helped Nigeria much earlier defeat the terrorists who threaten our country.”
