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Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:29pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
I came across a 2015 article from the Washington post which states that the United States considers Chad as the preponderant military power in West Africa. While this might not be factually correct one cannot deny the Chadians have some of the most fearsome infantry men in the region. Indeed the performance of Chadian soldiers in recent times is nothing short of commendable. We’ve seen how, smarting from the humiliating defeated at the hands of the Nigerian army and air force, a handful of Chadian soldiers on Toyota pickup trucks ambushed and destroyed two amoured colums of Libya troops, forceing the retreat of 2,500 Libyan soldiers armed with tanks and amoured vehicles. In November 1986 Qaddafi had ordered a major offensive against Chad. The Chadians routed the Libyan garrison at Fada, killing 784 Libyan soldiers. In an incident before that the Chadians captured a Libyan controlled airbase, killing a staggering 1,269 Libyans, taking 438 prisoners and destroying a large amount of Soviet built weapons, including Tupolev bombers, MiG -21 fighters, Mi-24 helicopter gunships and hundreds of tanks and amoured vehicles. The Chadians lost only 29 soldiers. I couldnt help imagining a Nigerian amoured battalion subjected to a similar attack. I realised that Mali became Chads means of showcasing what might happen if Nigeria ever fought an infantry intensive battle against Chad today. In Mali the Nigerian army deployed 800 men and two Mi-24 helicopter gunships. By contrast Chad deployed 2000 troops and hundreds of amoured vehicles. This well equiped Chadian troops were chosen to fight side by side with the French Foreign Legion,,while the ragtag AK-47 wielding troops from Nigeria were relegated to rear guard duties and manning checkpoints. The Ghanaians deployed a handful of cooks and drivers. The year 2013 was a bad year for Anglophone West Africa. This was the first time since independence that a Nigerian war-fighting function has been bested by a Central African country right in in our backyard. Waking up to this revelation came as a rude shock to the Nigerians and was all the more disturbing because the Nigerian army- the pride of West Africa has been the guarantor of peace and security in West Africa for 40 years. Nigerian soldiers were amongst the most feared. They had the toughest training of any infantry because of its selective process was very stringent. Nigerian artillery made potential adversary in the region tremble, it had the best trained artillery men. The Chadians most feared what they called “steel rain”. This consisted of a mix of BM-21 Grad Multiple Launch Rocket systems, field artillery guns , self propelled howitzers and cluster munitions carried by Nigerian net fighters. When Chadian troops invaded several islands in the Lake Chad area and villages in Borno, state northeast, Nigeria, the Army General tasked with flushing out the invaders – General Muhammadu Buhari for nearly a week ordered his forces to stand down, allowing the Chadians to to probe deeper into Nigerian territory. When Chadian troops were 50 miles from Maiduguri Nigerian artillery smothered Idris Derby’s much vaunted ground soldiers in a massive series of night long artillery barrages. This took Chadian troops by surprise. Expecting Nigerian tanks the Chadians had dug in 15 ft deep trenches to trap tanks and amoured vehicles ( like they did against Libya’s Amoured columns ). Confused and disoriented Chadian troops broke ranks and fled in all directions, some straight into the hands of concealed Nigerian troops who had stealthly crawled into positions, waiting in ambush, many drowned. The lucky ones made a run for the border. The Chadians never made any incursion on Nigerian territory again- Until recently. Chad’s military involvement in Mali and lately in all neighboring states sheds light on capability of the Chadian army and the Dictator Idris Derby regime’s ambition to be a regional military power. In 2014, reeling from an increase in Boko Haram attacks the Cameroonian dictator Paul Biya gave a passionate plea for help as his army was stretched too thin to deal effectively with the insurgents. Within days hundreds of Chadian troops and amoured vehicles rolled into the streets of Yaounde to the esctatic sheers of Cameroonians. These developments serves as a deadly analogy for what might happen to the Nigerian army should it find itself in a ground war with Chad or its surrogate Cameroon. Even without French support the Chadian Air Force fleet of strike aircrafts now outranks ours qualitatively. Also the Chadian surface to air missiles now out range ours by more than half. They have aquired anti tank missiles to negate our advantage in amour. To put things into perspective, the Nigerian army has a total of about 180 tanks. Chad has about 80 MILAN I anti tank missiles, 200 MILAN II anti tank missiles,50 TOW anti tank missiles and an undisclosed number of Stinger anti aircraft missiles. For one Nigerian tank the Chadians have 5 anti tank missiles. Tragically the qualitative and numerical advantage Nigeria enjoyed over its Central African adversaries are gone, intentionally destroyed by the past three administrations in a sacrifice to the god of political correctness and paranoia over the potential of a potential coup plot. We agreed to give up all our stockpile of cluster munitions, cancelled planned aquisition programes, and practically locked up our air force in a hanger. When the Niger Delta crises emerged Nigeria spent a quarter of a billion dollars on 15 Chengdu F-7Ni fighters from China “as a stop gap measure” and forgot all about it. The performance of the Chadian army in Mali West Africa and the Central African Republic, the audacity of the Chadians to carry out unauthorized air and ground operations in Nigerian territory and brag about it, the audacity of Cameroonian BIR troops to illegally cross into Nigerian territory, kill hundreds of Nigerian civilians and burn down whole villages, not once but three times, the unexpected appearance of a Cameroonian navy warship at the Eastern Naval Command in Calabar, strongly demonstrates that over the past 10 years our Francophone have gotten a capability jump on us and are showing it with their boldness. Their stock of anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank missiles and fighter jets are far superior than ours. Does this mean that the Chadian and Cameroonian army is superior to ours? No, not in the least, even if combined. If Nigeria fought Chad and Cameroon today, even on multiple fronts we would win. Ours is an all volunteer force of 180,000 men, 32,000 reservists and 150,000 paramilitary, which is more than the combined armies of all of West Africa plus Cameroon and Chad combined. Though out fixed winged strike aircraft fleet is pretty much outdated small, the Nigerian Air Force is far more superior when measured in an all inclusive basis (ISR/ISTAR, attack drones,helicopter gunships, logistics). But going by recent developments and Nigeria’s sluggish approach to modernizing its strike assets, the cost in blood and resources of any contest would be high. The tragic decline of the Nigerian armed forces holistically that was once amongst the most reverse and feared in Africa should serve as a cautionary tale. The diminution of military capability in the Nigerian armed forces comes at an inauspicious time; where advanced military facilities and airbase’s are springing up all around Nigeria and world powers are struggling for control in what was once Nigeria’s domain. France is setting up an entire new military aalliances in the sahel. The Americans are building Reaper Drone facilities and training centres, the Moroccans, a north African country are vying for membership in ECOWAS. Our complacency and the lacklustre approach of our corrupt ridden civilian government to fixing our military and build a proactive foreign policy has cost us dearly. We have forfeited what formerly was our diplomatic and military hegemony in West Africa to the Central Africans, North Africans, France and the United States, and we can only imagine what deadly consequences may result from our complacency, decline and refusal to invest in our miitary and lack of clear cohesive foreign policy. https://defensenigeria.blog/2017/11/19/tragic-how-nigeria-gave-up-west-africa/ 4 Likes |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:32pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
Why are you so obsessed with military equipment and mass killing devices? SSBN: 2 Likes |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:37pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
What would you rather me be obsessed with? Davido? 14 Likes |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:38pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
SSBN:West Africa does not need weapons of mass destruction all over the place. The people need food, healthcare, education, electricity, water. 12 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:41pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
zenmaster: Of what value is a country's wealth if it has no means of defending it? 21 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:41pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
SSBN:Defending it from who 2 Likes |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:42pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
zenmaster: Satan. |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:43pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
SSBN:you cannot fight Satan with military machines 2 Likes |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:45pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
zenmaster: Better to try. Heaven helps those who help themselves. If we fail who know God might spend legions of Angels. 2 Likes |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Homeboiy: 10:45pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
Wat is this? |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by OBAGADAFFI: 10:45pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:47pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
SSBN:Nigerian hospitals urgently need CT scan machines and other diagnostic equipment. Also, machines like tractors and water pumps will help. 5 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:48pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
Homeboiy: 1 Like 1 Share
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Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:49pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
zenmaster: That shouldn't stop you from investing in your security, no? 9 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:50pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
SSBN:By all means invest in security. But dont spend all the money buying killing machines while millions are suffering and starving 7 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:52pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
zenmaster: So what "non-killing" machine machine would you rather we invest in, pepper spray? 6 Likes |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 10:53pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
SSBN:start with hospital equipment 2 Likes |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by FrankLampard: 11:19pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
Book Haram really exposed the Nigerian military. 6 Likes |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Ikengawo: 11:30pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
so because the US likes you, it's an award? anyways, a zoo is a zoo. 1 Like |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 11:33pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
Ikengawo:In the past, US liked Saddam, Iraq, Osama bin Laden etc 4 Likes |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Konquest: 11:45pm On Nov 19, 2017 |
SSBN:^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ Very insightful post from you! I think: The Chadians have not been able to effectively contain BH members in Chad, thereby giving them the opportunity to cross easily into Nigeria. These BH members are Chadians. Same thing too with the Cameroonian military. I believe Nigerian military have been able to militarily deal with BH on Nigerian soil. It is the infiltrations across the boarders with Chad, Cameroon and Niger we have to deal with by making those countries to militarily sit up! 5 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by tsdarkside(m): 12:57am On Nov 20, 2017 |
zenmaster: .... |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by tsdarkside(m): 12:58am On Nov 20, 2017 |
SSBN: kikikkikiki...he thinks he is satan..... ...their animal from london told them so.... |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by KingSango(m): 2:12am On Nov 20, 2017 |
Konquest: Nigeria can build army forts on their borders about 25 miles apart. Also build a special force to do excursions across the border eliminate BH nests. Kill all BH and this will end future recruitment. Ase Love Sango 4 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by baralatie(m): 3:22am On Nov 20, 2017 |
zenmaster:the op has a fantasy for war! the same Chad has been axed by the USA for terrorism this is alongside Sudan |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by desmond2pk: 3:48am On Nov 20, 2017 |
You are on your own. Our politicians never loot finish talkless of equipping the military 1 Like |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Konquest: 3:51am On Nov 20, 2017 |
KingSango:^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ @KingSango Exactly! I've thought of that too. Nigeria has ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] Platforms and drones that can pick enemy movements even at night from very high altitudes. But pride and the fear of losing territorial integrity by the Chadians and especially Cameroon is what might get in the way. Nigeria has to work on assuring these countries that Nigerian Special Forces and their own troops can work to deliver a devastating blow to those BH street urchins and upstarts hiding in their countries otherwise the battle ain't over yet! The world has to rise up and deal with the Al-Qaeda affiliate called Al-Shabab in Somalia as well because there are linkages between that notorious gang and also the Yemen terrorist groups as well with BH. Some BH recruits have been arrested on Nigerian soil who only speak French and cannot even speak any known Nigerian language. All the best! 3 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by RZArecta(m): 4:23am On Nov 20, 2017 |
zenmaster:please stop derailing this thread, if you can't stand it, go to romance or nairaland advert section. 3 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by ayokellany: 5:16am On Nov 20, 2017 |
SSBN:. Each n every person that gave you a like for this comment are so naive they have no idea what lurks in the corner with a more emboldened army. Democracy is all we need at the moment not the army. The police should be beta trained n equipped to serve as competent deterrent to coup plotter from the army like what happened in Turkey. Only then should Nigeria consider expanding it's military capability. No one is as naive as you might desire singing glory of the old military days but forgetting the costly price of the dictators we had to pay for several decades of military rule. Nigeria I say is beta now than when taxpayer's money is used to breed rogues that enslave the masses through dictatorship. You don't eat your cake n have it. Nigeria can not afford a capable military without risking it's democracy so we decided on the lesser evil. Nigeria made a choice bro, pls live with it. 3 Likes |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 5:50am On Nov 20, 2017 |
ayokellany: Oh boy,..with mentality like this little wonder our military is in the gutters. We the people are the ones making excuses for them it seems, why should they care if we are satisfied with the status who.But then you've probably never been affected by the 8year mayhem we've been grappling with. 35,000 Nigerians are dead because of an under equiped army you dimwit. You think what constitute a nationhood is to live in lala land and pretend we don't enemies right? All other countries investing in the security of their country are ignorant idiots right? You can say carp because we have an all volunteer army. Which simply means while cowards like you sit in your room and talk crap real men volunteer to serve, to take a bullet so you won't have to...and what are you doing? You are forming new age intellectual, protestining the need to invest in the tools our volunteers need to do the job. This has to be the dumbest thing I have heard anyone say. In just over a decade we have been at war than any other nation in the modern history of Africa yet you don't realise that a nation with such a huge energy reserve will be prime targets.Think about it : Nigeria's oil reserve : 40 billion barrels. We are a trillion dollar resource rich economy smack right in the poorest region on the continent, with the most dictators. Do you really think desperate poor states will not give it a try? The Cameroonians did and was rewarded with the Bakassi peninsula. The Chadians are most certainly gonna try to make a mice on the prospective oil deposits in Borno again. We are sorrounded by adversaries setting up military bases all around Nigeria. Between 2001 and 2012 We were bogged down in a : bitter war of attrition with Niger Delta militants, We sent forces to Liberia we lost Bakassi to Cameroon We heard rumours of a possible attack to annex Obudu.. .....and for 9 straight years we've been locked in a bitter war of attrition to Boko Haram at the cost of tens of thousands of life. Remember the entire family that was wiped out when a suicide bomber detonated his bomb in church? On Christmas day. Shame on you. 5 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 5:57am On Nov 20, 2017 |
RZArecta:another bloodthirsty nairalander on the loose 1 Like |
Re: Tragic : How Nigeria Gave Up West Africa. by Nobody: 6:02am On Nov 20, 2017 |
zenmaster: Oga, you heard him.. go to the romance or gossip section. ..have you seen Davido's new album? 2 Likes |
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