Nigeria Wants Freedom From Foreign Arms Dependence

Nigeria is seeking to produce indigenous military equipment, supplementing with advanced foreign technologies.    

President Muhammadu Buhari said that the country’s over dependence on foreign military equipment is "unacceptable”. He also directed the Defense Ministry to build "a modest military industrial complex,”.

"We must evolve viable mechanisms for near-self-sufficiency in military equipment and logistics production complemented only by very advanced foreign technologies," Buhari said during graduation ceremony of the National Defense College in Abuja.

The proposed military complex would increase local production of weapons for the troops of the oil-rich African nation.

Buhari told officials and industry leaders to "re-engineer" the Defense Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), which was set up in 1964. Presently, DICON is used for tool-making and other civilian purposes.

Buhari visited the US in July, and asked American lawmakers to send more weapons but the US arms deliveries are limited by the so-called Leahy Law, which prohibits sales to armies suspected of human rights abuses.

Previously, Amnesty International announced, there was enough evidence to investigate senior Nigerian officers for war crimes.

A group of US congressmen visited the country earlier this week, and said that Washington could lift its weapons ban if Abuja improved its human rights record.