More Money For The Israelis -By Joe Dauda

Germany just signed a $2 billion contract with the Israeli weapons manufacturer, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, for the supply of Spike missiles. The politics around this arms deal is that these missiles were originally produced for Spain. But because Spain has been behaving badly (for example, supporting Hamas and calling for the establishment of a Palestinian State) the Israelis apparently chose to punish Spain by denying them the purchase of their Spike missiles. And now they would sell those same missiles to Germany, which did not support a Palestinian State at this time. Just so you know, Israel considers supporting a Palestinian State as an attempt to reward Hamas for the October 7 2023 invasion; so this is a serious issue.

I wish the Nigerian government will be able to purchase these Spike missiles. I have looked at how they operate and they are quite lethal. And they can save the lives of our military personnel because they have many capabilities, including one capability technically known as Fire-And-Forget. This means an infantry soldier can lock a target, shoot a Spike missile towards the target, and bend down to tie his shoe lace or just answer a phone call—or do anything else. That’s what Fire-And-Forget means in this context. Summary is that a soldier doesn’t need to bother about the missile because, once it is fired, it will find and destroy its target. More importantly, it also means the soldier can shoot the missile and quickly move into a defensive position and not be exposed to a counter strike, potentially saving his life.

Sometimes I dream of a special security fund to be used to support the Nigerian military. Delta State just launched something similar. The Federal Government has nothing to lose in copying Delta State. This fund can be supported by any number of our billionaires who just wish to give. If the expenditure is done in a transparent manner, it can make a huge difference. Spike missiles are good enough for 19 NATO countries to have bought them from Israel. Even India, Thailand, and the Netherlands have Spike missiles as part of their arsenal, all produced by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. The number of countries that patronize this weapon is in fact about 40. All this is in spite of the fact that the United States has an Anti-Tank Guided Missile comparable to the Spike missile known as the Javelin and the Russians have their own version known as the Kornet. Israel still commands patronage from 40 countries for their ATGMs even though it is in competition with super power nations such as the United States and Russia. That is how powerful the Israelis have become. But their missiles are not cheap. Germany will be paying the equivalent of over N3 trillion just to purchase some of these missiles. Nigeria does not have such money. Scratch that. The Nigerian government does not have such money. But Nigerians do. And if the government shows transparency and is humble enough to ask, it is my belief that there are enough patriotic billionaires out there who will be willing to finance the acquisition of such deadly weapons. Nigerian soldiers will only need to use drones and detect the general location of enemy combatants and then hide in-between very strong armoured vehicles to unleash their Spike missiles. Then retreat; and unleash again. With minimal casualty.

I just hope our enemies do not have these missiles. Or some worthy variant.

In the end, military power is a function of financial power. Which is why the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars every year to maintain its military edge. Donald Trump wants to spend even more. As someone would say, it’s all about the benjamins, benjamins being a euphemism for dollar bills.

The fact is that even if there is zero corruption in arms procurement in Nigeria, we still need more money to deal with current and emerging security challenges. Good weapons manufactured with current technology are expensive. Although I’m a Christian and Christians generally have positive sentiments in favour of Israel, my recommendation that we try to work with Israel in this regard is not sentimental. It is based on the little I know. Friendship with Israel has the potential to give us military advantages beyond my ability to explain. And the earlier we moved in that direction, the better.

Just to give you perspective, even Buhari, when he was General Buhari and Nigeria’s Head Of State, patronized the Israeli Mossad in carrying out one particularly sensitive assignment. If someone like Buhari can ignore his strong religious inclination and deal with the Israelis, permit me to say that no one has any excuse to try to deal with serious security issues in today’s highly technological battlefield while trying to sideline the Israelis, especially if the opportunity for collaboration exists. Israel is the original small but mighty. In 2024 alone, while fighting Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas sympathizers in Syria (apart from militias in Iraq) Israel managed to sell weapons to other countries worth a whopping $14.7 billion. That’s a lot of cash for a population of less than 10 million people. And Israel continues to export weapons. A few weeks ago, after stalling for sometime, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy, finally admitted that Ukraine had been using anti-missile weapons provided by Israel. So as not to provoke Russia, these weapons were actually shipped from Israel into the United States on the excuse that they needed to be upgraded. And from there they disappeared and then reappeared in Ukraine. So Israel is pulling more than its weight in the equation of global security. Nigeria should tag along. The way Israel is able to pinpoint and eliminate alleged terrorists is a wonder to many military analysts. Much of this ability depends on human intelligence: but the technology to leverage on that is what makes the difference. When you have a problem that is difficult to solve, ask for help. Even Russia is known to be using mercenaries. Of course it has the weapons. But Nigeria needs weapons more than mercenaries because our military has a reputation for excellence and can be trained to use virtually any type of weapon out there.

Time is ticking and our enemies are gaining ground and killing our young soldiers. The weapons to defeat them are available—whether from countries like Israel or even from the weapons black market. Let’s get these weapons and get the job done. Nigeria is too big to be sharing sovereignty with terrorists and that’s got to stop.