The Issue

Since 2009, Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group, has fought against the secular government of Nigeria. In summer 2014, then President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan asked the United States to authorize his country’s purchase of U.S.-manufactured aircraft to help in its fight against the group. President Barack Obama rejected the sale. This was because U.S. law prohibited the transfer of heavy military equipment to Nigeria, partly because of human rights abuses by Nigeria’s security services. 

The legislation in question, commonly called the Leahy Amendment, forbids U.S. military assistance to foreign forces credibly accused of human rights abuses. It requires that the government of the accused group investigates and responds to the charges. International humanitarian organizations and the international press have reported extensive abuses by Nigerian forces. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that these abuses drive public support for Boko Haram. Observers have estimated that during certain periods the security services have killed as many civilians as Boko Haram. Even so, the Nigerian government largely dismissed the charges and conducted few credible investigations. 
Muhammadu Buhari, who replaced Goodluck Jonathan as president in 2015, claimed he would restore discipline within the military. In September 2015, he promised to issue new rules of engagement designed to protect civilians. However, these steps appear to have had little practical consequence.  In 2015, the human rights organization Amnesty International began issuing reports every year documenting ongoing human rights abuses. These reports included details about unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests, and torture. 

Accountability for abuses by the military remained elusive. The government refrained from launching a formal investigation into a 2014 incident in which the army killed some 640 recaptured prison escapees alleged to be members of Boko Haram. In December 2015, the army killed several hundred members of a Shiite sect known as the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN). The army claimed that they had attacked the motorcade of the chief of army staff. A 2016 inquiry found the Nigerian army responsible for the killings. It also condemned the IMN for provoking the attack, and called for all involved parties to be prosecuted. Nigeria’s justice system did not take any further legal action, however. 

Decision Point–Set in February 2017

Despite Nigeria’s military abuses, in 2016, the United States considered selling 12 Super Tucano planes—light aircraft used for surveillance—to Nigeria.  However, on January 17, 2017, the same day the Obama administration planned to notify Congress of the aircraft sale to Nigeria, the Nigerian air force accidentally bombed a refugee camp killing more than 100 people. As a result, in one of his last decisions as U.S. President, Obama stalled the sale of the aircraft to Nigeria. On February 15th, during a telephone call with President Buhari, President Donald Trump indicated that he would take another look at the proposed sale.

The National Security Council (NSC) is meeting to discuss the sale. NSC members need to decide whether Nigeria’s economic and strategic importance to the United States overrides legal and ethical concerns about ongoing human rights abuses. Specifically, the NSC should decide whether to advise the new president to recommit to the sale of the aircraft and/or to consider other forms of military aid in the future. The NSC should also consider whether the prospect of a closer bilateral military relationship could incentivize Nigeria to investigate claims of human rights abuses and take necessary steps to end them.