October 29, 2007:
The Nigerian Air Force is
spending $1.2 billion to refurbish several dozen aircraft that had been out of
service because of lack of maintenance. Nigeria is one of the most corrupt
nations on the planet, and this extends to the military. For decades, corrupt
officers have diverted money, meant for aircraft maintenance, to their own use.
Eventually, the aircraft were unsafe to fly, and were just parked somewhere.
The refurbishment program was introduced because it was seen as too expensive
to simply purchase new aircraft (which would soon be inoperable because of
maintenance issues.)
Two years ago, the air force purchased 15 Chinese F-7
fighters (a clone of the Russian MiG-21) for $15 million each, to replace 32 MiG21's and 18 Jaguars that are grounded,
for lack of maintenance (and are being scraped).
But there were many non-combat aircraft for which
there were no inexpensive clones available. This included eight C-130
transports. Five are these are being refurbished to "like new" condition, while
three are considered too far gone for even that.