Lawmakers in the United States are allegedly stopping a proposed sale of attack helicopters to Nigeria, citing poor human rights record of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
U.S officials and congressional aides familiar with the matter said the deal is worth over $875 million.
The lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have reportedly delayed clearing a proposed sale of 12 AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters and accompanying defence systems to the Nigerian military due to the drift of the present government in Nigeria towards authoritarianism and human rights violations, among others.
Aside stopping the sale of helicopters, the US lawmakers have also stood against the proposed sale of 28 helicopter engines produced by GE Aviation, 14 military-grade aircraft navigation systems made by Honeywell, and 2,000 advanced precision kill weapon systems, laser-guided rocket munitions to Nigeria.
But the Presidency in a swift reaction, said Nigeria will get every necessary assistance it wants from the US government.
This came as UK parliamentarians, including Founder/CEO of Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, HART, Baroness Cox, Lord Alton of Liverpool, Dr. Rowan Williams, Founder/ President, Mervyn Thomas CMG and CEO, International Organization for Peace and Social Justice, Ayo Adedoyin, wrote a letter to the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, expressing concerns that recent Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, FCDO, report on human rights and democracy didn’t list Nigeria as a priority country.
Their concerns originated from the fact that Nigeria was shut out, despite daily reports of terrorist violence, mass forced displacement, rise in abductions for ransom and a general backsliding on democratic practices.
The hold on the sale also demonstrated how powerful US lawmakers want to push the Biden administration to rethink US relations with Nigeria amid overarching concerns that Buhari is drifting toward authoritarianism as his government is surrounded by several security challenges, including the Boko Haram insurgency.