The most contentious foreign policy issue in our country today is AFRICOM and its role in the protection of the resources of Gulf of Guinea. The position of the ECOWAS regional defence initiative ECOMOG becomes a pertinent question. The National Council of States rose from its meeting recently to denounce the location of AFRICOM in Nigeria. I personally think that the decision of the Council of State is hasty and uninformed and the issue should be subjected to more rigorous debate by the National Assembly, Nigerians and experts. AFRICOM from what I know of it is merely a proposal for a regional military alliance, with USA playing a major role to protect her interest and Nigeria or Africa deriving her own benefit from the relationship.
AFRICOM would not be the first military alliance. NATO was able to sustain peace in Europe after the World War 2 and in the process averted the use of nuclear weapons during the cold war years. It was a regional alliance pitched against the Warsaw Pact nations. The outcome of that alliance and its role in averting nuclear War and its possible devastation is now history. At no time did USA colonize Europe with the presence of NATO. The USA still maintains a strong military presence in Taiwan to protect that nation against Chinese hegemony in South East Asia. The USA still provides military support for Japan since the end of the WW2 and that has not stopped Japan outstripping USA in industrial electronics technology.
There have been so many political sentiments against AFRICOM which are not necessary. The fear of re-colonization is palpable and we are always suspicious of the West in any move made even when it could be to our advantage. Thinking of it though the most glorious period of our national life was the immediate post colonial era. Our education standard was at its peak in the early 60s to 70s. Unemployment for graduates was unthinkable. Teachers were some of the most respected middle class groups.
Our railways were the best in Africa. Electricity supply was not as epileptic as it is today. Those of us who grew up in those days and attended schools like Methodist College Uzuakoli, Govern-ment College Umuahia, and Kings College Lagos etc can attest to the fact that those were the golden years. Since we took over and made a clean break from our colonial past everything has broken down and the centre is not holding. Parents now have to take their children abroad to have a semblance of the kind of education they enjoyed.
This is not to say that I am advocating for us to go back to colonialism because it had its own problems. What I am really saying here is that we should examine AFRICOM more dispassionately and find the good sides to it. We must put everything in perspective before rejecting or accepting AFRICOM.
At a valedictory lecture I delivered in the Command and Staff College in 2002 on threat analysis, I had predicted that the generation of officers I was addressing would be facing counter insurgency and terrorism being experienced in the Niger Delta today. The concept of war has since changed and it would continue for the next decade. The change in threat has brought with it new concept of war and new types of machinery of war. The Nigerian Armed Forces is currently ill-equipped for the kind of limited war they are faced with today. Most of the warships of the navy today were procured during the regime of Shehu Shagari; they have no functional weapons systems anymore. Even the ones onboard are no longer useful for the kind of threats they are faced with. The weapons are obsolete and the manufacturers have since discontinued their production. Even if there is sincerity on the part of the service to repair them there are no spare parts. The same for the Airforce which recently decommissioned 150 aircraft due to unserviceability and obsolescence.
The Chief of Airforce recently brought this to the attention of the nation recently that all our fighter planes are grounded while the navy is still embarking on grand deception of the public by its recent flag showing exercises in the British Isle and South America with warships without weapons which could easily have been captured by well armed terrorists groups. The Army is not saved from the same problems. The Nigerian military has some of the best trained officers and men in the world today but grossly ill-equipped for contemporary warfare.
It is in view of these deficiencies that AFRICOM becomes relevant. While I agree that USA will want AFRICOM to serve its national interest, the Nigerian government should also ensure that AFRICOM serves its military and industrial interest. There are two dimensions to AFRICOM; the military and political dimensions. The advantage of the military dimension far outweighs its disadvantage to Nigeria. The Nigerian Government should insist that USA should provide the necessary equipment needed by Nigerian Armed Forces to play a major role in AFRICOM. President Yar’Adua is right to say that Nigeria should partner with the US in AFRICOM. In view of our desire to join the 20 industrial nations in 2020 the government should demand that all the ships and equipment of war should be built in Nigeria to create employment for our engineers and scientist and enhance our industrial base. Already Nigeria has industrial foundation that can develop into a defence industrial complex.
The Dockyard in Snake Island has already produced ferries; it can produce naval Inshore Patrol Boats. The aircraft production facilities provided by AIEP in KADUNA which produced Air Beetles should be revived to produce some combat platforms for the Airforce. The Styr plants in Bauchi should be re-activated to produce armoured vehicles for the Army. We should not just dismiss AFRICOM we should accept it but while US protects its interest in the region we should demand that our Armed Forces must be re-tooled to play the major role in AFRICOM. During the cold war days 85 percent of British industries relied on NATO military production for their survival. These created employment for their population. Britain is still a major ally of the US in NATO and they have benefited immensely from that relationship, better than any other NATO nation. The threat to our economy by terrorist is palpable. Can you imagine an Al Qaeda cell bombing our oil installations? The navy is finding it difficult to fight the militants in Niger Delta and they are not capable of fighting Al-Qaeda and let no one try to deceive us because we know. To equip the armed forces today and modernize them would create a deep hole in our lean budget and cost a lot in foreign exchange. We need the funds for the development of our dilapidated infrastructures in power and other areas. We must depend on the US to assist us by providing the industrial base and funds for the production of the needed platforms for the military.
The argument of espionage does not arise because we really have nothing to hide. All our defence systems were procured from the West and they are aware that they have broken down. If you read the Jane’s Fighting Ships and Aircraft which is not a secret journal the state of Nigerian warships and war planes are clearly written there. If the US wants to spy on the President in his bedroom they have the capability to do that even without AFRICOM in Nigeria.
On the political dimension, USA has never indulged in colonization from history. USA was also colonized like Nigeria but they have grown to be the world’s only superpower and I think there is a lot we can gain from such military alliance even if it has some political connotation. The US played a vital role forcing Britain to relinquish her colonies Britain. It was the US that insisted that Britain must pull out of Egypt and Suez Canal. US has continued to maintain the sovereignty of Taiwan in spite of Chinese insistence to the contrary. The US has no history of colonization rather they have played vital roles in freeing the world from tyranny and any form of oppression. There is the tendency to look at Iraq expedition as a failed one but the region is a safer one without such a tyrant like Sadam Hussein. The progress in the Middle East so far to create a state for the Palestinian people is also commendable.
Africa is the centre piece of Nigerian foreign policy and it has been for quite a while. The transformation of OAU to AU has brought with it new challenges in African politics. The agitation for an African State with no borders will materialize in a matter of time. The dream of Kwame Nkrumah for an African High Command will start with AFRICOM. With the end of major conflicts in Africa that dream is just around the corner. Nigeria must play a major role in achieving this dream. South Africa is always lurking around the corner to remove the wind off our sail but South Africa does not provide the psychological ‘Africanness’ Nigeria provides for the Africans and the Africans in Diaspora. If indeed there is going to be an African state in the near future and an African High command it must be spear-headed by Nigeria. President Yar’Adua is right to say that Nigeria should partner with US on AFRICOM. There is need for a rigorous debate on this subject by the National Assembly and the entire country. Let us not discount AFRICOM without understanding its implications. The Jewish people in Israel have benefited immensely from US because of the Jewish lobby in the US. The Arabs in spite of their aversion to US role in protecting Israel has benefited from the Arab lobby in the US, some of the effect is what we see today in Dubai and other Arab nations. AFRICOM is the opportunity for the Black lobby in the US to help develop Africa through AFRICOM. It will be regrettable if Nigeria allows smaller African Sates to host AFRICOM. We should not lose the opportunity because of sentiment and fear of re-colonization which does not arise. Finally AFRICOM has its good side which far outweighs its disadvantage to our country it would depend on the terms of the relationship. Let us give AFRICOM a chance.
