China frames its engagement with Africa as one of “mutual benefits”, “shared values” and “win-win cooperation ” and has also invested heavily in Africa. Nigeria and China commenced diplomatic relations in 1971 and, by 1972, a six-man delegation, led by Nigeria’s government officials, visited Beijing to negotiate an open-ended agreement on economic and technical cooperation, and trade.
With fragile social fabric leading to multiple civil wars, competition is heating up in the arms supply and security business across Africa.
As successive Nigerian governments have struggled to contain Islamist insurgents in the north-east, bandits and kidnappers in the north-west, and herder-farmer clashes in the Middle Belt, the country has become the biggest arms importer in Africa.
Over the decades, Beijing has been extensively involved in arms sales and supply of surveillance systems to Nigeria and amassed huge profits through unsustainable and ecologically-destructive mining activities, and commercial engagements in the oil sector, all through its PLA-linked military enterprise: NORINCO.
What is NORINCO:
North Industries Group Corporation Limited (Norinco) is a state-owned, defence equipment company. It was blacklisted by the US for trading with Iran and North Korea.
It is alleged that Norinco has been selling weapons of mass destruction to North Korea. ZhenHua Oil, a subsidiary of Norinco, has also faced U.S. sanctions. There was a controversy in early 2023 when Nepal was planning to procure armoured personnel carriers from Norinco for various UN peacekeeping missions. The Nepal Army has downplayed the move to buy APCs from China, even as it had initiated the procurement process through the Nepal Army Welfare Fund in 2021.
It was involved in a controversial mining project in Myanmar at the Letpadaung copper mine, that it acquired through its subsidiary Myanmar Wanbao Mining Copper Limited. There were recurring pushbacks against Chinese investments in Myanmar because Chinese investors ‘close relationship with the country’s military government over the past few decades resulted in negative sentiments toward Chinese investment among Myanmar’s civil society groups. The protests against the project were violently suppressed by the Burmese authorities.
In July 2014, the Chinese arms manufacturer Norinco delivered a shipment of 95,000 assault rifles and 20 million rounds of ammunition to the government, providing enough bullets to kill every person in South Sudan twice over. When Kenya bought Norinco VN-4 armoured personnel carriers, China’s sales representative declined to sit inside the vehicles during a test firing.
Kenya went ahead in 2016 with the purchase anyway and dozens of Kenyan personnel have been reportedly killed in those vehicles. In March 2023, Politico reported that Norinco shipped assault rifles, drone parts, and body armour to Russia between June and December 2022. Amid increasing anti-French sentiment and disturbed Wagner Group, Chinese Norinco is actively capitalising on Nigeria and other volatile regions in Africa for arms sales.NORINCO’s Role in Nigeria’s Military:
a new sales office in Senegal and a regional office in Abuja, Nigerian Army inducted 60 Type 89 tracked armoured personnel carriers (APC) at the Army School of Infantry in Jaji, Kaduna State, procured from Chinese Norinco in Oct 2021. In early Nov 2021, it received the first batch of Dongfeng Mengshi CSK131 4×4 armoured vehicles from China. Beijing’s armed drones CH-3 and CH-4 are also part of Abuja’s military arsenal. Other Chinese Norinco military sales to Nigeria include NORINCO ST1 105 mm Fire Support Vehicle, VT-4 Main Battle Tank, SH-5 105mm self-propelled Artillery System, and SH-2 122mm self-propelled artillery system.
The plethora of hardware from Norinco cost Nigeria an estimated $152 million in a deal signed with China in 2019. Beijing is currently seeking to sell its Y-20 Kunpeng airlifter to Nigeria, with the Y-20BE model shown to visiting Nigerian Defence Minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar in Beijing, military magazine Ordnance Industry Science Technology reported in early Jan 2024.
All these add to the avalanche of Chinese military equipment paid for by special funds and sent to Nigeria over the past few years by bribing Nigerian government officials.
Besides the supply of arms and military weapons, Norinco is also a big player in contracting in many African countries including Nigeria. Huibang Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Norinco, serves as the engineering, procurement, and contracting company in several African countries. In 2016, Abuja signed a $75.6 billion MoU in investment in the oil sector to revamp its decades-old refineries, with Norinco’s subsidiary firms involved in this major deal. It led to fears among the Nigerian public of rising fuel costs, given Beijing’s muscle-flexing acts in Abuja’s internal affairs. Norinco is aggressively targeting Nigeria’s police and paramilitary forces for selling weapons and other military equipment.
Nigeria’s new general and Chief of Army Staff Ibrahim Attahiru has warned Norinco that it could be excluded from future equipment supply contracts after mobile units it supplied ran into technical problems shortly after they were delivered to its Army in Nov 2020. As a damage-control measure, its military forced the news outlet to remove the content from the internet, calling it a concerted story and brushing off the truth. It has not carried out independent investigations to test the substandard quality of Chinese military equipment. Given the widespread corruption in the Nigerian military and Chinese opaqueness, continued purchase and usage of substandard will deplete Abuja’s limited financial assets and further its existing civil society issues.
Nigerian national newspaper This Day is a member of the Belt and Road News Network. Since 2014, it has maintained a close relationship with the Chinese embassy in Abuja. Given the rampant issue of Brown Envelope Journalism (BEJ) in Africa, the Chinese are exploiting the fragile social fabric of Nigeria at an alarming level. Under the garb of “media cooperation ”, many Nigerian media outlets like The Authority and Guardian have been bought by cash or kind, leading to negligible news reporting of Chinese harmful activities in Nigeria. The charm offensive of the current Chinese diplomat in Lagos, Ms Yan Yuqing, appears to emulate the activities of the former Chinese envoy to Kathmandu, Ms Hou Yanqi. It leads to abnormal hyping of Chinese Norinco’s poor quality arms as “superior” and “cost-effective” as Beijing wishes Abuja to “tell China’s story well !”
While aggressively portraying itself as a “partner”, providing aid and engaging in trade and investment, Beijing, however, in stark reality, has been a dangerous predator engaged in neo-colonialism, underpinned by its extensive labour immigration to Nigeria, exploitation of mineral wealth, active involvement in Abuja’s domestic affairs and damaging the West African nation’s fragile ecology. In the long run, the Chinese PLA could access Nigerian and other African military facilities, as the majority are facing Beijing’s debt-trap situation.
Regular deliveries of substandard and faulty Chinese Norinco armory for induction in the Nigerian Army, under the garb of cost-effectiveness, punishes the latter with the sacrifice of its precious lives of soldiers and burdens its depleting foreign reserves, thus pushing Abuja to become a Chinese vassal state. Hence, it is in the best sovereign interests of Nigeria to carefully recalibrate its military sales transactions with China’s Norinco.
pmldaily.com