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****** Nigeria: FG May Reduce Peacekeeping Commitments ******
Juliana Taiwo
11 August 2009
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Abuja — Minister of Defence, General Godwin Abbe (rtd), yesterday said the
Federal Government may reduce its commitment to peacekeeping operations.
This is in the face of dwindling resources following the global economic crisis
and militancy in the Niger Delta, coupled with other competing demands.Abbe
said this yesterday when he, alongside his Minister of State, Abdulrahman
Adamu, embarked on a working visit to Defence Headquarters and the three
Services.
Government had under former minister of defence now Minister of Interior,
Shettima Mustapha, during the visit of the Under Secretary of the United
Nations on Peacekeeping, Alain Leroy, said Nigeria currently has 17,000
peacekeepers in various peacekeeping missions with 5,000 in Darfur alone,
making it a burden on Nigeria's budget.Nigeria loses a minimum of $1.2 million
a month for deploying a battalion less equipped to meet United Nations standard
for peacekeeping.Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike, during
his visit to Sudan last year, said plans were being perfected to purchase UN-
standard Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) to ensure that Nigeria no longer
loses out, adding that Nigeria will rather provide UN-standard APCs or nothing.
An APC used in the theatre (peacekeeping) fetches a country a minimum of $6,000
a month, if the APC is fully equipped to UN standard.
Outgoing United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), Commander,
and former Chief of Defence Staff, General Martins Luther Agwai, had said "if
Nigeria has 10 APCs, and they stay here (in Darfur) for one month, that is
$60,000. Multiply by one year, you get a total of $720,000 on the 10 APCs
alone. It is because we do not understand we think we are helping UN. No, you
are not helping UN.
"When it comes to this, you are actually making money. I have evidence to prove
that there are countries today that are virtually running their military,
particularly the army, based on their investments in the UN.
"All what you need to do is invest. You have heard about the Canadian APCs.
They are 30 years old. So, if you maintain APC, the average life span of any
APC in this world is 25 years.
"If you push that APC into this theatre and you can maintain it, you get $6,000
every month. If a battalion is equipped to meet UN standard, each battalion
will fetch you minimum of $1.2 million a month. But if you don't invest, you
cannot get anything and that is the problem we are having in the third world,
particularly in Nigeria," Agwai had lamented.
Abbe further disclosed that efforts are being made to revive the research and
development department and drive the process of manufacturing locally most of
the equipment used in peacekeeping operations, adding that only then will the
perennial problem of ill-equipped troop at peacekeeping operations be
addressed.
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