US Reacts To Cancellation Of Military Training

A former US ambassador has described the Nigeria’s military cancellation of US specialised military training on fighting Boko Haram sect as ‘puzzling’, ThisDay reports.

The US embassy which made the cancellation known during the week said the decision was baffling because Nigerian military struggles to defeat the extremist, which constitutes nuisance in the North-eastern part of the country.

Lieutenant Colonel John Cantwell, the acting defence and army attaché at the US Embassy in Abuja, gave his amazement while speaking with the Voice of America (VOA). He said it was not clear why Nigeria stopped the training.

“No, we did not receive any specific reason as to why they wanted to cancel the training. But their notification was in response to a request that we had sent to them requesting their intention regarding moving forward with the third phase of training,” he said.

He said the Boko Haram sect has been terrorizing innocent Nigerians, bombing, killing and kidnapping several people in the north-eastern part of the country as well as overrunning bases and seizing some territory from the military, which is the reason why former US Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell said Nigeria’s decision to cancel the training was baffling.

“What on earth were the Nigerians thinking of to simply cancel a training program. And to me that is a complete mystery, because I do not see how it advances their own interests in any way,” he said.

Campbell alleged that since 1990 coup attempt against then-military government of General Ibrahim Babangida, recent civilian administrations have preferred to keep the military weak.

“In other words, how do you reduce the coup-making potential of the military? Well, what you do is starve it for resources. So I think that accounts, in part at least, for the transformation of the Nigerian military from being, by far, the best in Africa to one which now, if news reports are to be credited, regularly runs from firefights with Boko Haram,” he said.

While reacting to Nigeria’s ambassador criticism of Washington last month over US refusal to sell weapons to Nigerian government to fight insurgency, Campbell explained that US hands were tied by federal law, as International rights groups have repeatedly criticized Nigeria’s military for killing and torturing civilians.

He said a law known as the Leahy amendment prohibits the US from supporting militaries that are thought to be involved in human rights violations.

“American military training of Nigerians, at this particular point in time, is inherently highly limited. It is limited by the Leahy amendment, amongst other things. Nevertheless, it made no sense to me at all that the Nigerian side would terminate a training programme,” Campbell said.

US officials, however, revealed that they would continue other training with the Nigerian military.

Meanwhile, Major General Chris Olukolade, the military spokesman who refused to be interviewed hinted in a text message that the cancellation is “purely a strategic action,” and declined to explain further.

It would be recalled that since April, US soldiers have been training a battalion of about 600 Nigerian troops on how to fight the Boko Haram insurgency. The Americans only provided non-lethal equipment comprising vehicles and uniforms.

The Nigerian military has been fighting Boko Haram for almost five years now and there have been reports of soldiers being killed by the terrorists or simply abandon battlefield and run away.

However, it was reported that the Federal Government has cancelled an agreement it had with the US for American security officials to train a Nigerian Army Battalion.