Nigeria is China’s biggest ally in Africa and the most pro-China nation in the world after China. She is now teaming up with China’s enemy, Japan, for “support in military operations” according to a report:
Nigeria is seeking the cooperation of Japan in the area of science and technology, which is seen as key in modern military operations.
The discussions came as Nigeria Minister of Defence Mansur Muhammad Dan-Ali, paid a courtesy call on the Japanese Defence Minister of State, Tomohiro Yamamoto, at Shinjuku-Ku in the capital Tokyo.
Dan-Ali is on an official visit to the Asian country.”There is a lot the two countries could learn and benefit from each other,” Dan-Ali said.
He highlighted some of the contributions of Nigeria on national security and peace-keeping operations in other parts of the world.
Yamamoto commended Nigeria’s leading role in Africa, particularly in supporting regional cooperation on security and peacebuilding.
He agreed the two countries should initiate a defence cooperation that would serve humanity.
Nigeria is enduring a deadly threat posed by the Islamist insurgent group, Boko Haram.
The sect has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced over two million.
Boko Haram Fuelled By Shrinking Lake Chad – UN Deputy Chief UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has attributed the Boko Haram terrorism in Northeast Nigeria. (source)
At the same time this is taking place, the UK has also signed an “anti-terrorism” agreement with Nigeria reported on by the Japan News:
Britain and Nigeria signed a security and defense agreement during a one-day visit by British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday as Africa’s most populous country struggles to defeat Boko Haram extremists and others linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant organization.
The prime minister is on a three-country Africa visit with a large business delegation as Britain seeks to boost economic ties ahead of a bumpy exit from the European Union in March. This is the first visit by a British prime minister to Africa in five years.
May also stopped in South Africa, another of the continent’s top economies, and she goes next to Kenya.
After meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, May said the countries will work together on “shared security threats like Boko Haram and human trafficking.”
The defense aid includes more training and equipment for Nigeria’s military, which has been criticized by human rights groups over alleged abuses that it denies.
Last week, Buhari attracted headlines when he told troops in northwestern Zamfara state that “as your commander-in-chief, I want you to be as ruthless as humanly possible” against bandits in the region: “Nigerians deserve some peace.”
As elections approach next year Buhari is under pressure to deliver on promises to improve the country’s security, in particular to defeat Boko Haram’s years-long insurgency in the northeast.
The extremists, known both for mass abductions and for using young women as suicide bombers, continue to carry out attacks on military bases and in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and the insurgency’s birthplace.
Buhari and his government more than once have declared that Boko Haram had been crushed.
As Europe worries about migration and human trafficking from West Africa, May also announced a new project with France to help Nigeria, the region’s powerhouse, and neighboring Niger improve border cooperation along one of the main migration routes north.
Nigeria and other West African countries in recent months have brought hundreds of migrants stranded in Libya home after reports of abuses, but the dream of employment remains a draw for some in the region where poverty and climate change can bite hard.
As it tries to assert itself more across Africa, Britain also is opening new embassies in Niger and Chad and expanding its embassy in Mali, calling it support to countries “on the front line of instability” as West Africa’s vast, arid Sahel is threatened by a number of extremist groups with shifting allegiances.
Britain and Nigeria, Britain’s second-largest trading partner on the continent, also signed an agreement on economic cooperation.
May welcomed the commitment from two major Nigeria companies, Dangote Cement and Seplat Petroleum, to make listings on the London Stock Exchange. (source)
Nigeria, which is a net oil exporting nation and a powerful country in Africa, recently switched from selling oil using dollars to using Chinese Yuan. We warned in June 2018 this would result in an increase in terrorism throughout Nigeria because of evidence showing a connection between the Boko Haram terrorist group and funding from the US and other Western governments, knowing full well that said governments have regularly empoyed terrorism as a vehicle of foreign policy. You can read our analysis of it here. Just as Christianity was exteriminated in Iraq, it does not matter how many Christians die or are exterminated in Nigeria because in the mind of said governments, any means justifies the ends of power.
Nigeria is clearly accepting offers from both the Chinese and the “NATO” bloc, and with this one should not view this as a genuine attempt to build up that nation either, as both only care about Nigeria in so far as she grants them access to her riches of oil and minerals. However, this does not come without risk, because as this is a contest of empires, the nations will fight but through acts of violence and disorder in Nigeria.
For this reason it will be important to keep a close watch on the state of politics in Nigeria and social events, as violence and social unrest will likely increase and in the midst of said unrest will be strategically directed towards various foreign companies and groups operating as they are the intended targets because the violence will be fomented by the governments against each other with internal unrest as the cover.
We have warned before about Japan going into Africa with a physical presence since 2016, and this is the second time they are doing it. The British and French have historical territory holdings in Africa, and the Americans also have a significant military presence on the continent as well. China is building up a military and mining presence in Africa. It also appears that Germany is going to return to her former colonies in Africa as well.
All of this speaks to re-industrialization for re-militarization leading to war. It also says that Africa, while she has been involved in both the First and Second World Wars and given the large presence of foreign powers establishing themselves openly on the continent, may play a larger role in a Third World War than she has in the last two.