by Dr. M.K. Hassan
In the 2015 budget submitted to the National
Assembly as reported by media outlets, Mr.
President with penchant for buying executive
jets for his own personal leisure, did not
disappoint us. He has a 400 million naira budget
item as deposit for trade-in for a brand new
executive jet. It is no wonder that the
Presidential Air Fleet has more modern and
functioning airplanes than the whole aircrafts of
Nigerian Air Force (NAF) put together.
In this time of insecurity, Nigerians deserve to
know why this administration has failed to deal
with Boko Haram before the elections so that
they can decide if they want to continue on this
path of failure. One of the reasons is, instead of
arming the NAF with modern fighter jets,
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) has been
building a fleet of brand new presidential
executive jets.
While Jonathan is busy junketing the globe in his
brand new executive jets, the struggling NAF is
left with obsolete aircrafts to fight insurgents.
The Nigerian citizens especially in the North East
have been left in the mercy of marauding
insurgents taking over our territory. With this
kind of careless defense strategy from the
President, how can the country defeat Boko
Haram?
According to the well known intelligence and
defence information company, IHS Janes
[website,http://www.janes.com/article/45858/
nigeria-wants-to-procure-scorpion-isr-and-light-
attack-jet] “The Nigerian Air Force (NAF)
currently fields a very limited offensive counter
insurgency (COIN) capability in the guise of 11
Chinese-built CAC Chengdu F-7 fighters; as well
as 21 Aero L-39ZA Albatros, 12 Alenia MB-339,
and 12 Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet trainer and
light strike platforms. It also fields seven russian
Mil Mi-24 'Hind' assault helicopters”. Based on
this available information on the main assets of
the NAF, it is clear that it is handicapped. It may
be one of the reasons why the Jonathan’s
Government could not defeat Boko Haram.
Note that the 12 French built Dassault/Dornier
Alpha Jets have been the main fighter Jets in the
fight against Boko Haram in the last six years .
For those who do not know, Alpha jets are out of
production since 1991. They have some of the
most obsolete surveillance capability one can
think of due to low computing and imaging
processing power of the electronics on board.
The Jets were designed for the attack of long
range fixed targets like Barracks in conventional
warfare and not close and highly mobile targets
like Boko Haram’s pick up trucks convoys. To
summarise the capability of these alpha jets, it is
like trying to use the early version of the black
and white Nokia 3310 phone for facebook and
internet browsing today instead of the smart
phones like blackberry Z30, or iPhone 6. For all
his promises of defeating boko haram, Jonathan
is trying to use these jets as his main fighting air
power to defeat them. Imagine GEJ and his
military commanders using these to find
Shekau!
The Chinese made Chengdu F-7 jet fighters were
acquired by Obasanjo in 2005 and delivered up
to 2010 as reported by Janes. Obasanjo and
“Made in China” goods have one thing in
common: Unreliability, and high failure rates
when and where it matters most. The Chengdu
F-7 were among some of the Jets that have been
crashing and burning down during this conflict. I
believe any fighter pilot that is asked to go on
mission with any of the unmaintained jets, will
definitely make his last prayers before flying one.
I am not going to talk about the Czechoslovakian
made Aero Albatros L39 and the 12 Alenia
MB339 military trainer jet aircrafts. Those are so
old that they are suppose to be in the museum,
and not for training our Jet Fighter Pilots. The old
Russian MIG helicopters are among those
crashing helicopters we have got, and some did
crash recently and were in the news.
Some of these jets were burned down by Boko
Haram when they attacked Maiduguri in March
2014 as shown in the pictures released online by
the insurgents. This begs for explanation, why
were even some of the Jets parked in Maiduguri,
the epicenter of Boko Haram, instead of outside
the region? Why would Air Marshall Bade allow
this? At least we know that for security of
defence assets, in most war setting situation,
long range Jet Fighters are kept out of conflict
regions and are most of the time signaled to
come in for attacks. For example, will the US Air
force park their most important jet fighters, the
Northrop Grumman B2 stealth bombers, in
Baghdad waiting for terrorists to come and burn
them down? No! Anyway this is a story for
another day.
How can rag tagged insurgents be moving in
convoys for 100’s of kilometers within Nigerian
borders unchallenged with air power and be able
to establish a caliphate in Gwoza? In a pathetic
show of comedy, instead of the President to
acquire real drones like the Raptors from General
Atomics, Stalkers from Lockheed Martin or their
type from any where to stop the terrorists from
moving in large convoys, he had his own drone
made for him in Kaduna. This president is
unserious! The Kaduna made “Gulma” drone he
went to launch some months back, one can buy
something better than it for three thousand
dollars (600 thousand naira) on Ebay website.
The President in his usual characteristic comical
display of “C in C” powers praised the toy Gulma
drone and said that it will be used to fight Boko
Haram. Even on the launch day, the Gulma
drone was a sitting duck on display inside a
building. It was not flown to demonstrate its
capabilities to fight boko haram and only God
knows how much was spent in building Gulma.
What a fraud and a joke!
As an expert in radar systems and electronics, I
can say without mincing words that these out of
style aircrafts the NAF uses in this battle against
boko haram with not so good night vision
capability, magnetometers, vision cameras,
gyroscopes, and other must have sensors on
board fighter jets, cannot find Shekau and his
rag tag army. These military assets are incapable
of accurately tracking highly mobile insurgents
targets like Boko Haram that move in large
convoys to attack our towns and villages.
Does it bother Jonathan that his Air force is in
shambles since he came to power and cannot
fight Boko Haram? NO! The reason is his measure
of how successful and strong the economy and
his country is, is not by the fighting power of his
Air force.The President measures the prosperity
of his country and its military strength with how
many new jet owners we have since he came to
power, and how many executive jets he has
acquired for himself. O boy, we are in serious
trouble.
Do not despair, there is a new strategy and
fighter jet for fighting boko haram and it is the
PVC. PVC stands for the Permanent Voters Card.
Yes, it is a weapon that Nigerians must acquire
to defeat this incompetent government and
Boko Haram. No matter what, every citizen must
get this fighter jet, the PVC, since the
Government has failed to get fighter jets for its
Air force to fight Boko Haram. The way to use the
PVC fighter jet is to come out on the election
day, line up no matter the heat and inefficiency
of INEC on that day, to cast the vote, defend the
vote against external aggression of riggers and
their collaborators so that we can have a new
government that will arm the Air force. The new
Government to be headed by Muhammadu
Buhari, has better strategy of defeating Boko
Haram. It will sell all these unnecessary
executive presidential jets acquired by Jonathan
and buy the fighter jets and drones needed to
send Boko Haram parking. His presidency will
need only 2 executive jets: one for use and one
as a spare in case of maintenance. GEJ has
already bought 4 jets since he came to power in
addition to the 9 Jets he met in the fleet.
Finally, we have to ask how many Presidential
Jets will be enough for a child that grew up with
no shoes? and have you acquired your PVC
Fighter Jet from INEC?

For real I'm tired of all these GEJ stories.

>>>next pls>>>>

1000. either you like it or not you must show yourcertificate

Choi.... oladele.... hw much buhari don pay u now...?

Op

It is government properties and not his

So go and ........

Or are you saying if another president comes in, he won't use it.

Emmydo360:
Choi.... oladele.... hw much buhari don pay u now...?

Lol....when you are enacting for change, u don't ask for KOBO, so is like salvation FREE

SUBMARINE:
Op

It is government properties and not his

So go and ........

Or are you saying if another president comes in, he won't use it.

Am not saying he should not buy private jet, but he should equip our Air force. Especial in this condition when they need him most

oladele97:


Am not saying he should not buy private jet, but he should equip our Air force. Especial in this condition when they need him most

Its not a matter of equipment but also the issue of sabotage