FG cancels training of Nigerian soldiers by US

The United States has announced the cancellation of the
training of a battalion of the Nigeria Army, at the request
of the Federal Government.
It said that the first two phases of the training were
conducted between April and August, 2014, noting that it
had provided untrained civilian personnel with basic
soldiering skills.
A statement from the Information Office of the US
Embassy in Abuja, on Monday, regretted what it
described as the premature termination of the exercise
programme, which it said would have trained the
Nigerian soldiers to build their capacity to counter the
Boko Haram terrorists.
The US government, however, said it would continue
other aspects of the extensive bilateral security relationship,
as well as all other assistance programmes.
The statement read, “At the request of the Nigerian
government, the United States will discontinue its training
of a Nigerian Army battalion. The first two phases of
training were conducted between April and August 2014,
and had provided previously untrained civilian personnel
with basic soldiering skills.
“Based on mutual assessment of the Nigerian Army and
U.S. trainers, a third iteration of training was agreed
upon with the intent of developing the battalion into a unit
with advanced infantry skills.
“We regret the premature termination of this training, as
it was to be the first in a larger planned project that
would have trained additional units with the goal of helping
the Nigerian Army build capacity to counter Boko
Haram.”
But a source in a strategic office close to the Federal
Government operations, said Nigeria had more pressing
problems to deal with than the training of military
personnel, noting that members of the Nigeria Army “are
well trained already and they don’t need any further
training from the Americans.”
The source said, “Nigeria is facing a more pressing
problems now; we need weapons to combat Boko Haram
and not training. The Americans are supplying weapons
and assisting Iraq to fight ISIS, but they are talking of
training here. Is Nigeria not facing the same threat as
Iraq that they are assisting? What we need are weapons
and not training, our security personnel have all the
training they required.”
The Director, Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris
Olukolade, could not be reached for comment as calls to
his line failed to connect.
When contacted, the Director, Public Affairs Division,
Foreign Ministry, Ogbole Ahmedu-Ode, said he had no
information on why the training was terminated by the
Federal Government.