Boko Haram: Jonathan plans to meet Obama, Cameron

►Jonathan may soon meet with Obama and the British Prime Minister.
►To raise Nigeria’s concerns over the two country’s refusal to sell arms that would enable the Nigerian fight insurgency.

There are indications that President Goodluck Jonathan may soon meet with President Barak

Obama and the British Prime Minister, David Cameroun to raise Nigeria’s concerns over the two country’s refusal to sell arms that would enable the Nigerian Military fight the Boko Haram insurgency.

Highly placed security and Presidency sources told Saturday Vanguard that the meeting had become necessary following the Federal Government’s inability to procure necessary arms and ammunition to fight terrorists in the north eastern part of the country.

Saturday Vanguard had exclusively reported the unwillingness of the American and British governments to assist Nigerian security services with arms and training, following which the government has turned to Russia and China to meet some of its military requirements.

Already, over 1,000 Nigerian soldiers and other security personnel are in Russia for training by the country’s security personnel.

A Presidency official said that although the American government officials make regular public commitments that they would assist Nigerian security officials fight terrorism, “the truth of the matter is that they are not doing anything.

“Our greatest challenge is that the American government has not only remained unwilling to sell arms to our security services, they have blocked every attempt by this government to procure arms through other means. They do not share intelligence with our security services, they are not assisting our security services substantially,” the source added.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter noted that the decision to explore the possibility of a face to face meeting between Jonathan and Barak Obama was to enable the Nigerian president to impress it upon his U. S counterpart on the urgency of the needs of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

“We believe that if we are able to have a breakthrough with the American President, things will be better in terms of purchase of equipment for our armed services. We are hopeful that the trend will be reversed if we are able to convince the Americans” the source further added.

Saturday Vanguard further gathered that the decision by the south African government to seize $5 million which was meant for the purchase of military hardware from the Nigerian government followed pressure from the American government on the South African government not to allow the deal go through.

The American Ambassador to Nigeria Mr. James Entwistle said the unwillingness of his government to sell arms to Nigeria stemmed from the fact that the Nigerian armed forces had been accused of human rights abuses especially in the North East where it is fighting terrorists.

Addressing newsmen in Yola, the Adamawa State capital Thursday, Entwistle reportedly said that the American government would only sell or give out arms when she was sure of the purpose it was meant for.

“Before we share equipment with any country, whether it is a government-to-government grant or a commercial sale that requires government approval, we look at a couple of things.

“Does it make sense in terms of that country’s needs? The second thing we look at is the human rights situation in that country. And as we look at equipment transfers, we look at the situation in those countries in the past few years.

“As you all know, there have been instances, I am not saying across the board, of human rights abuses by the Nigerian military in the North-east.

“So the kind of question that we have to ask is let’s say we give certain kinds of equipment to the Nigerian military which are then used in a way that affects the human rights situation. If I approve that, I’m responsible for that. We take that responsibility very seriously,” Entwistle said.