India and Nigeria have enjoyed warm, friendly and deep-rooted bilateral relations for several decades and continue to do so. Ongoing engagements on the commercial front and the cultural front, and greater connectivity and people-to-people contact will certainly help in strengthening this bilateral relationship further.
The reported death of Abu Bakr Shekau may herald the imminent end of Boko Haram, but the impact of its heinous atrocities, particularly its use of female suicide bombers, has set a dangerous precedent for other terrorist groups to adopt.
Nigerian government should promote a coherent win-win cooperation across sub-regional, regional and international marine economic fields. This begins with ratification of the six instruments of International Maritime Organization by the Nigerian government. Ambitious nations are investing heavily in blue economy taking into account the projected contributions to their GDP. Nigeria cannot be an onlooker.
The Nigerian Navy is slowly clawing its way back to being a viable force capable of performing critical missions in respect of EEZ surveillance and patrol. It possesses an adequate fleet of inshore and riverine patrol craft and its growing refit and overhaul capabilities should prove adequate to the task of maintaining these vessels and augmenting them with new construction. However, the Nigerian Navy continues to face capability gaps in respect of the number of major surface combatants as well as the weapons systems available to the fleet.
The Nigerian Air Force’s impending acquisition of the JF-17 is a cautionary tale of the need for armed forces everywhere to assess their respective operational environment in a realistic manner and then devise an appropriate equipment procurement strategy.
One of the campaign promises of President Muhammadu Buhari was that he would eliminate Boko Haram six months after assumption of office. By December 2015, the Buhari-led government gave itself a pass mark for countering the terrorists. The government declared that the group had been ‘technically defeated’. This declaration has led to debates in the public space as to the veracity of this claim. This article aims to critically appraise the on-going attempt to eliminate the Boko Haram threat under the Buhari administration.
Boko Haram has recently emerged as one of the deadliest and most brutal terrorist groups with links to the global jihadi movement. The group is grounded in a region where it can tap into ethnic ties and take advantage of weak security environment, generic condition of lawlessness and socio-economic marginalization.
