Defense chief of Nigeria accuses nations withholding arms sales over abuses of ‘double standards’

Nigeria’s defense chief expressed frustration Tuesday with what he called the “double standards” of some countries that won’t sell his military weapons because of human rights concerns.

Gen. Christopher Musa’s comment underscores one of the biggest challenges for Africa’s most populous nation in combating a deadly and complex security crisis, from the Islamic militant insurgency in northeast to the dozens of armed groups targeting travelers and communities in the northwest and central regions.

“Even with our money, it is difficult getting equipment,” Musa told reporters in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja, acknowledging a huge need for items such as helicopters, drones and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles.

“Some say human rights, some say ‘You have killed’ … but again, sometimes, people pointing fingers at you have done worse and yet nobody is holding them to account. It is these double standards that (are) making the world more dangerous,” Musa said.

He declined to name the countries in question when asked by The Associated Press.

Nigeria’s security forces for many years have faced allegations of extrajudicial killings and illegal arrests. The United States and other major arms suppliers at one point or another have withheld the sale of weapons over those accusations.

In December, at least 85 civilians were killed when a Nigerian army drone erroneously targeted a religious gathering in northwest Kaduna state, the latest of several such incidents.

Musa said Nigeria’s military has continued to improve on its human rights record and is holding its personnel to account. Alleged abuses are often investigated, and a report on the December incident will be released soon, he said.

“The Nigerian Armed Forces have the capacity to secure Nigeria (and) the entire region,” Musa said, but added that the lack of needed weapons will continue to limit that capacity.

However, there is little evidence to show that Nigeria’s military has improved on its human rights record, according to Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International’s director in Nigeria.

“Protecting civilians should be their priority (and) they should look at all human rights violations they have committed to ensure accountability,” Sanusi said.

U.S. military support to Nigeria has at times included training on how to mitigate risks to civilians, according to a State Department statement in January on security cooperation. It said that in August, Nigeria delivered the first payment for 12 attack helicopters worth a total of $997 million.

By Chinedu Asadu, AP

Terrorists kill traditional ruler, five residents, burn down vehicles in Katsina, Nigeria

Six residents, including the ward head, Haruna Wakili, were killed when terrorists attacked Yar Nasarawa, a community in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State on Monday.

Residents said the terrorists abducted about 38 residents, including women and children and left 10 residents with gunshot injuries. They also burnt down six houses, eight commercial vehicles and shops in the community.

Yar Nasarawa is less than five kilometres away from the Army Super Camp situated in Faskari. The camp was established by the former Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, in 2018.

“The attackers came prepared. I have never seen them in such number,” a resident, Auwal Liman, who said he ran into the bush during the attack, said. “While some of them were shooting indiscriminately, others were putting vehicles and shops on fire.”

The terrorists stormed the community around 11 p.m. and blocked all entries and exits to ward off support from the military and members of the Community Watch Corps in the area.

The six dead residents were buried Tuesday morning in the community, according to Mr Liman.

“We are in a sorry situation. We can’t go to the farm. When we stay away from our farms and local markets, the terrorists follow us into our communities and kill us. Our lives hardly matter,” Mr Liman lamented.

Motorcycle-riding terrorists have been unleashing mayhem on residents in the north-west for over a decade. leading to layers of humanitarian crises in the sub-region.

“The terrorists were merciless in yesterday’s attack,” a resident, Abdullahi Adamu, said. “They burnt down a child. They took him inside his mother’s room set the room ablaze and slaughtered another old man in the same house. It was barbaric.”

Mr Adamu, who said he climbed a rock outside the community and waited till early morning, said he has lost hope in the government and security agencies.

The police spokesperson in the state, Abubakar-Sadik Aliyu, confirmed the attack to journalists in Katsina but did not provide the details.

“The Commissioner of Police, CP Aliyu Musa, had since deployed the command’s tactical, operational and intelligence to the scene, and currently combing the surrounding bushes for the possible arrest of the perpetrators for diligent prosecution,” Mr Aliyu said.

By Mohammed Babangida, Premium Times

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Nigeria police repel attack by gunmen, one officer dies

A group of armed men attacked a police division in Zurmi town, in Nigeria's northwest Zamfara state, but were repelled by officers with casualties recorded on both sides, the police said on Monday.

Gangs of heavily armed men referred to as bandits by locals have wreaked havoc across Nigeria's northwest in the past three years, kidnapping thousands, killings hundreds, and making it unsafe to travel by road or to farm in some areas.

Zamfara police spokesperson Yazid Abubakar said suspected bandits wielding sophisticated weapons attacked the division late on Sunday, killing a senior officer and wounding two others.

"The policemen on duty retaliated and repelled the attack after a serious gun duel in which many of the bandits were killed and some took to their heels with possible gunshot wounds," Abubakar said in a statement.

Abubakar said the police have begun an investigation and have deployed more men to fortify the town and arrest fleeing culprits.

Residents said at least seven people were killed during the shootout, including the divisional crime officer.
Ibrahim Mohammed, a resident of Zurmi who witnessed the attack, told Reuters by phone that an unspecified number of people were kidnapped and the police division was set ablaze.

"They ransacked the place and set ablaze some shops and cars near the police station," Mohammed said.
Another resident Usman Abubakar said, "as I speak with you, they also abducted some people whose numbers cannot be immediately ascertained."

Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, is grappling with a multifaceted security crisis, including kidnappings for ransom, which has reached alarming proportions.

The widespread insecurity is exacerbating a cost-of-living crisis caused in part by the reforms of President Bola Tinubu who has yet to detail how he plans to the tackle the situation. 

By Ahmed Kingimi, Reuters

Related story: 8 police officers killed by suspected rebels in Nigeria

 

Protests in Nigeria over skyrocketing inflation as local currency hits record low value

Nigerians are facing one of the West African nation’s worst economic crises in years triggered by surging inflation, the result of monetary policies that have pushed the currency to an all-time low against the dollar. The situation has provoked anger and protests across the country.

The latest government statistics released Thursday showed the inflation rate in January rose to 29.9%, its highest since 1996, mainly driven by food and non-alcoholic beverages. Nigeria's currency, the naira, further plummeted to 1,524 to $1 on Friday, reflecting a 230% loss of value in the last year.

"My family is now living one day at a time (and) trusting God," said trader Idris Ahmed, whose sales at a clothing store in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja have declined from an average of $46 daily to $16.

The plummeting currency worsens an already bad situation, further eroding incomes and savings. It squeezes millions of Nigerians already struggling with hardship due to government reforms including the removal of gas subsidies that resulted in gas prices tripling.
 

A SNAPSHOT OF NIGERIA’S ECONOMY

With a population of more than 210 million people, Nigeria is not just Africa’s most populous country but also the continent’s largest economy. Its gross domestic product is driven mainly by services such as information technology and banking, followed by manufacturing and processing businesses and then agriculture.

The challenge is that the economy is far from sufficient for Nigeria’s booming population, relying heavily on imports to meet the daily needs of its citizens from cars to cutlery. So it is easily affected by external shocks such as the parallel foreign exchange market that determines the price of goods and services.

Nigeria's economy is heavily dependent on crude oil, its largest foreign exchange earner. When crude prices plunged in 2014, authorities used its scarce foreign reserves to try to stabilize the naira amid multiple exchange rates. The government also shut down the land borders to encourage local production and limited access to the dollar for importers of certain items.

The measures, however, further destabilized the naira by facilitating a booming parallel market for the dollar. Crude oil sales that boost foreign exchange earnings have also dropped because of chronic theft and pipeline vandalism.

MONETARY REFORMS POORLY IMPLEMENTED

Shortly after taking the reins of power in May last year, President Bola Tinubu took bold steps to fix the ailing economy and attract investors. He announced the end of costly decadeslong gas subsidies, which the government said were no longer sustainable. Meanwhile, the country's multiple exchange rates were unified to allow market forces to determine the rate of the local naira against the dollar, which in effect devalued the currency.

Analysts say there were no adequate measures to contain the shocks that were bound to come as a result of reforms including the provision of a subsidized transportation system and an immediate increase in wages.

So the more than 200% increase in gas prices caused by the end of the gas subsidy started to have a knock-on effect on everything else, especially because locals rely heavily on gas-powered generators to light their households and run their businesses.

WHY IS THE NAIRA PLUMMETING IN VALUE?

Under the previous leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria, policymakers tightly controlled the rate of the naira against the dollar, thereby forcing individuals and businesses in need of dollars to head to the black market, where the currency was trading at a much lower rate.

There was also a huge backlog of accumulated foreign exchange demand on the official market — estimated to be $7 billion — due in part to limited dollar flows as foreign investments into Nigeria and the country’s sale of crude oil have declined.

Authorities said a unified exchange rate would mean easier access to the dollar, thereby encouraging foreign investors and stabilizing the naira. But that has yet to happen because inflows have been poor. Instead, the naira has further weakened as it continues to depreciate against the dollar.
 

WHAT ARE AUTHORITIES DOING?

CBN Gov. Olayemi Cardoso has said the bank has cleared $2.5 billion of the foreign exchange backlog out of the $7 billion that had been outstanding. The bank, however, found that $2.4 billion of that backlog were false claims that it would not clear, Cardoso said, leaving a balance of about $2.2 billion, which he said will be cleared "soon."

Tinubu, meanwhile, has directed the release of food items such as cereals from government reserves among other palliatives to help cushion the effect of the hardship. The government has also said it plans to set up a commodity board to help regulate the soaring prices of goods and services.

On Thursday, the Nigerian leader met with state governors to deliberate on the economic crisis, part of which he blamed on the large-scale hoarding of food in some warehouses.

"We must ensure that speculators, hoarders and rent seekers are not allowed to sabotage our efforts in ensuring the wide availability of food to all Nigerians," Tinubu said.

By Friday morning, local media were reporting that stores were being sealed for hoarding and charging unfair prices.
 

HOW ARE NIGERIANS COPING WITH TOUGH TIMES?

The situation is at its worst in conflict zones in northern Nigeria, where farming communities are no longer able to cultivate what they eat as they are forced to flee violence. Pockets of protests have broken out in past weeks but security forces have been quick to impede them, even making arrests in some cases.

In the economic hub of Lagos and other major cities, there are fewer cars and more legs on the roads as commuters are forced to trek to work. The prices of everything from food to household items increase daily.

"Even to eat now is a problem," said Ahmed in Abuja. "But what can we do?"

AP

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Unemployment rate in Nigeria surges to 5% amidst rising cost of living

This information was disclosed in the Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) report for Q3 2023, released on Monday. Per the NBS, this rate represents a 0.8% increase from the second quarter of 2023, where the unemployment rate stood at 4.2%.

The unemployment rate among men was 4.0% and 6.0 among women. By location, the unemployment rate was 6.0% in urban areas and 4.0% in rural areas. Focusing on young people, the youth unemployment rate was 8.6%.

In Q3 2023, 75.6% of Nigeria's working-age population were employed. When examining the data by gender, the employment-to-population ratio was 77.7% for males and 73.5% for females.

Further disaggregation by location revealed an employment-to-population ratio of 71.1% in urban areas and 80.7% in rural areas.

The report noted that 87.3% of employed Nigerians were predominantly self-employed, while the remaining 12.7% were primarily engaged as employees. 80.3% of employed people in urban areas were self-employed this is lower when compared with 94.5% of employed people in rural areas.

Informal employment

Informal employment in Nigeria and other developing countries seems to be very high when compared to the developed countries.

The percentage of employed individuals engaged in informal work was 92.3%, a slight decrease from the previous quarter's 92.7%. Interestingly, the rate of women involved in informal employment exceeded that of men.

"The rate of informal employment among people living in rural areas was 97.2% while the urban informality rate was estimated at 87.5%. Females are more likely to be in informal employment than males," the report said.

By Adekunle Agbetiloye, Business Insider Africa

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