"Don’t blame us for your security problems" – UN tells Nigeria

The United Nations has thrashed reports that they have not provided adequate assistance to Nigeria in order to combat Boko Haram. In a statement by the United States Embassy to Nigeria, U.N says Nigerians should rather blame the federal government for their lack of political will to develop an effective counter-terrorism strategy. Read statement after cut… 

“The February 6 op-ed titled “Nigeria calls for a re-think of the Leahy Law” claims that the United States has not provided adequate assistance to Nigeria in order to combat Boko Haram. It blames the “Leahy Law,” which bars the U.S. from providing training or equipment to foreign military units that are credibly alleged to have committed gross human rights violations.

Mr. Opeyemi’s article greatly understates U.S. assistance to Nigeria and mischaracterizes how the Leahy Law is applied worldwide.

The claim that U.S. assistance to Nigeria amounts to only $700,000 is false. That amount is a fraction of the nearly$5 million   security assistance Nigeria receives from the U.S. each year. In fact, the U.S. has attempted to provide assistance that the Nigerian government has refused. In December of last year  the Nigerian government canceled a U.S.-led training program that was intended to build the capacity of the Nigerian Army to fight Boko Haram.

The op-ed also misrepresents how the Leahy Law works. At the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that the article references, Principal Deputy Secretary of State for African Affairs Robert Jackson did not in any way suggest that the entirety of Nigeria was somehow “off limits” to receive U.S. assistance.

The Leahy Law is not a blanket prohibition on U.S. security assistance to an entire country. Instead, only the particular unit that is suspected of serious human rights crimes is blocked from U.S. assistance. And even then, assistance can be restored as soon as there is a credible investigation and the responsible parties are held accountable.

Nigeria is not being singled out. The Leahy Law applies to every country to which U.S. taxpayers provide military or police assistance. The idea that Nigeria is on a list of “bad” countries prohibited from receiving U.S. aid is wrong. There are no “bad” countries under the Leahy Law, only bad actors committing crimes like murder, rape, and torture while wearing the uniform of a foreign security force.

The problem here is not a lack of U.S. support for Nigeria’s military. The problem is a lack of political will from the Nigerian government to develop an effective counterterrorism strategy. The Nigerian security budget is over $5 billion, but corruption and mismanagement prevent Nigerian security forces from getting the supplies and materials they need. While Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan immediately issued a strong statement in response to the terrorist attacks in Paris last month, he was inexplicably slow to even comment on  The Boko Haram massacre in Baga.

The Nigerian government needs to develop an effective counterterrorism strategy and instill standards of professionalism for its armed forces for there to be any chance of addressing the country’s security challenges. There are many reasons Boko Haram has yet to be defeated; actions taken and opportunities missed within Nigeria have a much greater impact than the Leahy Law.

Kennedy is a program associate and Shepard is a program assistant at the Open Society Foundations in Washington, D.C.”