Nigeria Rated 5th in African in The Global Fire Power Rankings

Nigeria ranked fifth place in The Global Fire Power Rankings of military capabilities of African Countries behind Egypt, Algeria, Ethiopia and South African in first, second, third and fourth place respectively. With 170 million population, Nigeria spends $2.3 billion annually to defend its 170 million population compared to that of Egypt’s $4.6bn with a population of 94 million, Algeria’s budget is $10.5bn for a population of 39.2 million, while Ethiopia spends $340m each year for a population of 94 million and South African 54 million population budgets $4.6bn. Ethiopia with a population of 94 million is second place despite having a far lower defense budget than all others in the first five African countries.

Ethiopia came behind first place country Egypt, in military hardware, with an impressive 560 tanks, 780 armored vehicles, 81 air crafts, 39 helicopters and 183 rocket launchers. In comparison Nigeria with a population that is the largest in Africa and a much higher military spending has only 363 tanks and 36 helicopters, less than Ethiopia. Corruption remains the single most detrimental factor behind the poor showing of the country in all global rating indices. The drama that unfolded within the military’s poor campaign against the terror group Boko Haram, is tied to the absence of military hardware support and supplies.

The force has recorded its highest desertion rate ever. Some 54 soldiers were a couple of months ago, court marshalled for mutiny, they were accused of shooting at a top military command and for insubordination. A separate group of over 250 soldiers was this week dismissed from the force for refusing duty assignments to trouble spots where the Boko Haram was terrorizing communities in North East Nigeria. Account by the officers facing death sentences is that the soldiers at the front were ill-equipped against the higher fire power of the terror group and top commanders also had compromising positions and were giving away critical strategic information to the Boko Haram terrorists.