Nigeria will not accept the stringent conditions given by the United States on the planned purchase of 12 Tucano fighter jets, Minister of Defence Mansur Dan-Ali has said.
The minister said the security council has approved the purchase of the $494 million 12 A-29 Super Tucano fighter crafts, but “some of the conditions America gave us are stringent. These conditions we will not accept.”
One of the conditions is that the sale will not be made till 2020, the minister said. He said other conditions included that Nigerian technicians would not be trained by US staff, or be part of the maintenance crews.
“They are also thinking of not allowing our technicians to be part of the production inspection,” he said.
“But this is what we normally do in all the defence contracts, we send our personnel to go and understudy, especially when it comes to specialized aircrafts like in Russia, our personnel are permanently based in where the production is being done for this MI35 helicopters,” Dan-Ali told reporters at the State House, Abuja.
The aircraft purchase has been mired in controversy since President Barack Obama’s administration. Under Obama, the aircraft deal had been held off due to concerns about the Nigerian military’s human rights abuses.
The deal was further postponed recently when 170 people died last January after Nigerian Airforce bombed a refugee camp in Rann, Borno state.
Dan-Ali said the federal government was planning to meet with the US ambassador to discuss reducing the conditions.
“Payments will be made when the conditions are reduced,” the defence minister said.
The Nigerian Airforce had earlier scheduled February 20 for the final agreements to be signed and initial payments made.
Concern over cost of planes
Daily Trust has been on the story for weeks over the huge cost of the Tucano planes since the deal was announced.
The Minister of Information Lai Mohammed earlier said in a statement that the 12 aircraft, with weapons and services, would cost $593 million. But the defence minister yesterday gave the cost at $494m, about $100m less the cost announced by the government spokesperson.
A cost analysis has shown that the government-declared cost is almost three times the cost of the planes in the international market.
Findings revealed that a Super Tucano costs more than $10 million each and the price can go up to $15 million apiece depending on the configuration.
Going by Dan-Ali’s cost, Nigeria is purchasing each of the plane at about $41 million.
The propeller-driven plane with reconnaissance, surveillance and attack capabilities, is made by Brazil’s Embraer. A second production line is in Florida, in a partnership between Embraer and privately held Sierra Nevada Corp of Sparks, Nevada.
More than 200 Super Tucanos are operated by 10 nations, according to Embraer. The plane is used for training and security, surveillance, reconnaissance and counter-insurgency missions.
The plane can carry a wide array of armaments, including precision-guided munitions, is equipped with advanced avionics, communications, and sensors and can operate from remote, unpaved airstrips.
It has a maximum speed of 590 km per hour (367 mph) and a flight ceiling of 35,000 feet (6.6 miles).
