Early last year, the former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, commissioned four naval ships: NNS Okpabana, NNS Centenary, NNS Sagbama and NNS Prosperity, acquired from the US, Ireland and China. At the time, Nigerians hailed the development, considering the purpose of acquisition – to fight against oil theft, other maritime crimes, insurgency and instability in parts of the country. At the same time, there were debates on how the country could invest more on the local production of its military equipment. More than a year after, Nigeria prides itself on 60 locally made gunboats and many are asking whether the country is getting it right or not.

In Lagos State on Wednesday, the Nigerian Navy inaugurated 39 gun boats and 45 operational vehicles, to assist the fight against criminality in parts of the country. Thirty of the inaugurated gunboats were constructed by Epenal Boat Yard in Port Harcourt, improved versions of those unveiled last February. While giving his remarks at the inauguration, the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Ibok Ete-Ibas said “the decision of the navy to build 60 boats locally was part of its resolve to look inwards in the production of the nation’s naval hardware.”

Nigeria has had its high time in the arms industry. In 1964, before the civil war – during Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s administration – the Parliament Act established the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), with its ordinance factory in Kaduna. With the help of the corporation’s first technical partner, Fritz Werner of Western Germany, DICON achieved a substantial production capacity. The relevance of the arms production unit was obvious while the Nigerian government fought for its sovereignty against Biafran secessionists as the production rates reportedly tripled during that time. Unfortunately, the end of the civil war in 1970 ended DICON’s lucrative arms market, thereby forcing the factory to use its equipment to produce civilian items like rural water supply equipment, industrial spare parts and furniture for sale to the public.

The gunboats inaugurated on Wednesday are fitted with appropriate weapons and anti-ballistic protection. Most likely, this is in fulfilment of the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that the options of producing weapons locally be fully explored. Buhari told the Ministry of Defence “to liaise with strategic ministries, departments and agencies to re-engineer the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) to meet national military hardware and logistics requirements.” The president followed up with a directive to the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) to partner with DICON and commence the manufacturing of light weapons which it has designed.

Since the major raw material needed in the production of arms is steel, the recent breakthrough by the Federal Government on retaking the Ajaokuta steel industry may also be a game changer for the country’s arms production industry. After four years of renegotiations, the Federal Government of Nigeria, on the 1st of August, signed a concession agreement with Global Steel Holdings Limited for the Nigerian Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO), Itakpe. According to the agreement, the government retakes the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, meaning that all former contractual agreements which have caused the redundancy of the highly prospective industry are now void. The Federal Government has since announced its intention to give the company out to a serious operator with proven technical and financial capacities.

Nigeria has the potential to produce its own arms. According to the government, local production is cost-effective; “the cost of production of a unit of the boat is less than half the cost of producing similar boats from overseas.” The only major challenge this may come with is the required expertise to produce modern weapons and this can be tackled if the government invests in military engineering, an education that will breed professionals in this field. Most importantly, the government has expressed the will to enlarge its arms production level. The government needs to help relevant organs of the military leverage on the current production, in order to come up with more sophisticated arms that can help the military win the several internal wars the country is fighting.

For more insight please listen to the podcast below:

Elsewhere on Ventures

Triangle arrow