Presidency says Nigeria will receive six Super Tucanos combat aircraft mid-July

Nigeria is expected to receive six of the 12 Super Tucanos ordered from the United States in mid-July, according to the presidency.

A presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said on Tuesday that 14 Nigerian pilots were currently training with the aircraft at the Moody Air Force Base in Georgia.

Garba Shehu posted a video of what appeared to be test-flight operations on his verified Twitter handle.

The video was credited to the Sierra Nevada Corporation, a private American aerospace firm.

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The announcement came after the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Ibrahim Attahiru, appeared before a committee of lawmakers at the House of Representatives on Monday.

The committee is reviewing the purchase, use, and control of arms, ammunition, and related hardware by the military, paramilitary, and other law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.

In March, the National Security Adviser, Mohammed Babagana Monguno had been quoted by the BBC to have suggested that funds for arms procurement had gone missing under the immediate past Service Chiefs.

The Office of the National Security Adviser later put out a statement, saying Monguno had been quoted out of context.

But with an insurgency still alive in the country’s Northeast and the increasing threat of banditry in Northwest, critics have continued to question how well-equipped the country’s military is.

Garba Shehu himself had admitted that the army has had some problem with procuring equipment, as they arrive “in bits and in pieces.”

According to Garba Shehu, during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today last March, procurements made had not been fully delivered.

“In August 2018, they allowed the Nigerian government to buy 12 super Tucano aircraft suitable for the kind of war we are fighting in the Northeast,” he had said at the time.

“In addition to that, other arms of the military have also made procurements. The navy has done nearly 100 percent of their procurement — equipment delivered.

“The airforce has bought a number of attack helicopters — 35 helicopters from Ukraine. Some of them have been commissioned on national television.

“We have bought a lot of drones, but with the army, there have been problems with procurement. Equipment has been coming bits and in pieces.

“This is not ideal. In fact, our biggest procurement is coming from the UAE. As I speak to you now, it is held up in a situation only diplomacy will resolve. We were talking to them last week; the Nigerian minister of defence actually had a meeting with the ambassador of the UAE to Nigeria, and the idea is to resolve this so that the equipment held up will be released. We need them here.”