Nigeria Owned Drones Grounded Due to Corruption

It has been revealed that Nigeria would have had no need for foreign help to trace the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants, if it had maintained the Aerostar drones it bought from the Israeli makers years ago.

But corruption and poor maintenance have left the drones grounded.
Reuters reported that Nigeria bought the Israeli surveillance drones years ago.
“To the best of our knowledge, these systems aren’t operational,” Tsur Dvir, marketing officer for Aeronautics Defense Systems, a firm based south of Tel Aviv that supplied Nigeria with Aerostar unmanned aerial vehicles, said on Tuesday.
A Nigerian government source and a former military attache to Nigeria both confirmed the information, although they said details were sketchy owing to the secretive nature of Israeli-Nigerian military cooperation.
The Nigerian military did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the disclosure could further embarrass President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, which has been criticised for its slow response to the hostage crisis.
Israel last week sent intelligence and hostage-negotiation officers to Nigeria to work alongside U.S., British and French experts helping the Nigerian authorities in the search, an Israeli official said on Tuesday.
“These are not operational troops, they’re there to advise,” the Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity
The April 14 abduction of the girls by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, and the inability of the military to locate them after more than five weeks, have stirred a global outcry.
Failure to maintain equipment is seen as one reason why Nigeria’s military has been unable to quell the militants. Nigeria argues counter-insurgency is something it never had to deal with until the Boko Haram uprising five years ago, and so is having to slowly learn.
Dvir, speaking on the sidelines of a conference organised by Israel Defense magazine, told Reuters that since the drones were purchased several years ago, Nigerian clients had not commissioned Aeronautics to carry out any routine maintenance.
“We did receive an inquiry from them about spare parts, but it never turned into a deal. I wish it had,” Dvir said, arguing that with their extensive flying range and thermal cameras capable of picking up body heat at night, the Aerostars could have helped scour northern Nigeria for the missing girls.
“They (drones) are probably parked in a yard somewhere.”
OBSOLETE EQUIPMENT
Dvir did not say how many Aerostars were bought by Nigeria.
Nigeria’s defense spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
The former attache said the deal was struck in 2006, with a view to deploying the drones in the oil-producing Niger Delta, where militants were attacking crude pipelines and kidnapping oil workers before an amnesty three years later. They never flew.
Last December, Nigeria also unveiled a locally made drone at an air force base in Kaduna, although it has not flown since.
A government adviser said the Israeli drones were among many procurements that quickly went obsolete owing to lack of maintenance.
Neither source, nor the company, knew how many had been bought, but an aerospace industry source said they each would have been worth between $15 million and $17 million.
The U.S. military is already flying manned and unmanned surveillance aircraft over Nigeria to look for the girls, whose seizure piled pressure on President Jonathan to deal with the rebels.
Boko Haram has killed thousands of people in its campaign to establish an Islamic state in mostly Muslim northeast Nigeria.
Israel has defence ties with a number of African countries. Last September, it sent advisers to Kenya to help in a siege at a shopping mall in Nairobi, where Islamist militants killed at least 67 people in a gun and grenade attack.

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Posted: at 21-05-2014 10:16 AM (9 years ago) | Addicted Hero

So we get drones for dis country bfore?kai God were re u?

Posted: at 21-05-2014 11:37 AM (9 years ago) | Upcoming

Wasting resources up n down...

Posted: at 21-05-2014 12:52 PM (9 years ago) | Gistmaniac

"This will further embarrass the goodluck jonathan administratn". Wow. We really dnt hve a government,we only have selfish ppl fighting 4 their selfish cause.

Posted: at 21-05-2014 01:09 PM (9 years ago) | Gistmaniac

The main problem Nigerian is that they will buy but to maintain it is another problem, the person who is in charge of that drone has diverted the fund that was mean to maintain that drone in his or her private bank acct

Posted: at 21-05-2014 03:59 PM (9 years ago) | Gistmaniac

Shame on nigeria people, nigeria no even reach one naira in the eyes of other country. Thank god am from biafra. Up biafra!

Posted: at 21-05-2014 04:35 PM (9 years ago) | Hero

hy is it that every tribe in Africa choose to remain in the situation and map that their white colonial masters put them in. every tribe in Africa should go there own separate ways and live peaceful and be productively like Europeans, If not plz our colonizer should come back to Africa and undo what you did or liberate us please or do you people like or enjoy seeing us live in poverty, etc

please read this to who it may concern.

Africa or other continents like Africa need is for its tribe or ethnic nation to live separately just like it is in Europe and America like you have Russia,zcheck,Spain,France,Germany and so on. This is peace and freedom.this will help the world economy in areas like inflation and make people lives easier.This needs to happen in nigeria.just look at that country.if every tribe goes and live on their own in that country, they will be able to produce an electricity enough to stay on for 24/7.One people one vision one goal.where as you have different tribes or ethnicities or ethnic nation living a circle of there will be competition,wars,sentiments,dislike, grudge,vengeance, drag,intimidation e.t.c and this slows innovation and technological advancement in the that particular place. When there is drag it drags every body down around the would economically.



After 100 years of nigeria's existence there is no progress in any way.No and no to election. Nigeria have expired and it is crippling and there is nothing or any one can do to revive it, because we are not one and will never be one.history never lies.Division Is the answer to that place called nigeria since we will not leave together as one and are not the same people. if not there will and will always be various dire situations and consequences at all times like bomb exploding and more, if you know what I mean. The leaders and every one including the pastors knows what is right( peaceful division,seperation, distingration)and doeth it not it is sin(wrong), Is it not it? Now the presidents name is bad luck and gowon and the rest are hated for murdering millions of Biafrans. the only good thing or gift they can give or do us is to divide that place called nigeria peacefully, so we can all go and rule our selves in our own land the way we want. Where there will not be pointing of fingers because we are one people.I am igbo and biafra is where I am from. and I don't want to be apart of those that muddered my people in millions. Where are you from? Niggeria was created by man named Fredrick lugard and it has expired and at 100 years old there is no numerous significant of improvement and progress so let's seek our way out.lets break out we have the right now. If we the youths can can say no we don't want to continue any more and don't vote for our leader. And we will miss seeing each other and so on and it is worth it after all if you can travel to other places from niggeria we can still see each other. At last gowon and the rest should be championing for division so that he could be pardoned for what he did us biafrans.



Expecially the igbos and follows by any other vulnerable ethnic group ethnic language speaking,if nigeria is not divided your language will go extinct. So let's seek for our freedom peacefully or how ever you know how as for me I choose peacefully just like they did in Russia and turkey(Crimea) for instance.
When your language dies every thing goes with it,even animals will be better than you when it does because they have a language they speak fluently.Are you lost as a people when it dies?




Biafra biaoooo ife Mmadu bu owu ri ndu? Anom na MBA USA maka na awum onye Oji agidi ha Enye mi oru,Igagodi ulo akwukwo ukwu oga ara gi ahu ewete Olu maka na iwu onye Oji, ewete di owelu Ike agidi ha akwo zu gi Ugwo.mu Lutagodi fa agidi anyem oru maka na awum onye igbo. Aridi oru nu na aligbo ma ofodi na nigeria ni ne. Oka mma nga ogbara oku nnwannem. Abum onye Biafra ruo mgbe ebiebi. Because of nigeria your language is dying and you are unaware of it because you no longer think in or write it. Because of nigeria you can not write in our ancestors alphabetical letter called nsibidi. Igbo is more sweet and understood when written in nsibidi, igbo language will be cherished and preserved if written in nsibidi.I don't know about other languages in the south east. I have not heard of south south before when giving direction.south north east west mentioned but not southsouth or westwest or easteast or north north



Expecially the igbos and follows by any other vulnerable ethnic group ethnic language speaking,if nigeria is not divided your language will go extinct. So let's seek for our freedom peacefully or how ever you know how as for me I choose peacefully just like they did in Russia and turkey(Crimea) for instance.
When your language dies every thing goes with it,even animals will be better than you when it does because they have a language they speak fluently.Are you lost as a people when it dies?

Truth is like pregnancy you can not cover it and it give birth to life.

Posted: at 21-05-2014 05:02 PM (9 years ago) | Upcoming

We all know lack of maintenance is one of the problems facing Nigeria

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Posted: at 21-05-2014 06:17 PM (9 years ago) | Hero

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Posted: at 21-05-2014 09:31 PM (9 years ago) | Hero

      

Posted: at 21-05-2014 10:53 PM (9 years ago) | Addicted Hero