Viktor Nikitin
My Nigeria 1978-1980

By mid-summer 1980, at the start of the Moscow Olympics, I had been on a foreign mission for three years with a group of Soviet military specialists (SMS) in Nigeria as a senior interpreter for the 10th Main Directorate of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces. That year, young independent Nigeria was only 20 years old. Nigeria's area is almost a million square kilometers; by this indicator, the country ranks 14th in Africa and 31st in the world. In terms of population, it surpasses all other African countries: the population, according to 2020 data, was 210 million people, ranking sixth in the world. It is a predominantly agricultural country with large reserves of oil, gas and other natural resources. I was stationed in the city of Kano in northern Nigeria, the second most populous after Lagos. There was a Nigerian Air Force base there, including a flying training squadron.

The need to create its own air force arose among the Nigerian leadership in 1962. The Nigerian Armed Forces participated in international operations outside the country: in 1960 – in the UN operation in the Congo and in 1964 – in the suppression of the military uprising in Tanganyika (today's Tanzania). The need to transfer troops and supplies to the conflict zone by air initially forced the Nigerian military to rely on civilian aircraft or foreign air forces. However, the Nigerian government soon became convinced of the need to create its own air force. On April 18, 1964, the Nigerian Parliament passed the Air Force Act 1964, thereby laying the foundation for a new branch of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

* * *

In 1967, the Ibo people's attempt to establish their own country by creating their own state, the Republic of Biafra, led to a clash with the federal center and the beginning of military operations against the rebels. In official historiography, this war is known as the "Nigerian Civil War." By the beginning of the military operations, the Nigerian Air Force, which had only existed for three years, had not yet fully developed. Initially, they were tasked with providing air communications. However, the appearance of B-26 bombers and helicopters among the rebels forced the Nigerian Air Force to reconsider its tactics. MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters were hastily purchased from the USSR and delivered to Nigeria via Egypt. Several military transport aircraft were also purchased. Nigerian aircraft began to be used for air attacks and strikes on rebel positions and civilian targets. The period of the Biafra War of 1967–1970 was characterized by a rapid growth and increase in the size of the Nigerian Air Force.

* * *

After the war victory, the Nigerian Air Force was reorganized based on the combat experience gained. The Nigerian Air Force Training Command was created and a training air wing was formed, equipped with Czechoslovakian-made L-29 aircraft. During the 1970s and 1980s, the main task was to create a full-fledged, combat-ready air force equipped with modern weapons and military equipment. The British Royal Air Force and the US Air Force were used as models in reforming the structure of the Nigerian Air Force.

* * *

In the 1970s, Nigeria purchased Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft from the United States. Six aircraft were purchased for a total of $45 million. Twenty-five Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21MF and six MiG-21UM aircraft were delivered in 1975 with the advent of the Murtala Muhammed and then Olusegun Obasanjo administrations, replacing General Yakubu Gowon. Most of these aircraft were fully operational, making the Nigerian Air Force one of the most powerful air forces in Africa at the time. The Nigerian Air Force Development Plan 1975-1980 restructured the air force formations into group-level units reporting to the Air Force Headquarters. This structure was found to be too cumbersome, and so in 1978 two intermediate commands were formed: the Nigerian Air Force Tactical Air Command and the Nigerian Air Force Training Command.

* * *

At the end of 1980, the Nigerian Air Force was organised into three operational commands:

* Tactical Air Command

* Training Command

* Logistics Command

The main bases, in addition to Kano Air Force Base, Lagos Air Force Base and Kaduna Air Force Base, were identified as Makurdi Air Force Base and Maidugurdi Air Force Base.

* * *

At Kano Air Force Base, Nigerian military pilots were trained to fly Soviet MiG-21 fighters, which Nigeria had been purchasing from the USSR since the mid-1970s. These were single-seat combat MiG Fishbeds and two-seat trainers MiG-21UM Mongols. More precisely, in Kano, Nigerian pilots were converted from other types of aircraft, such as the basic trainer of the US Air Force Northrop T-38 Talon or the more advanced fighter of the US Air Force Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter, on which Nigerian pilots were trained to fly at Edwards Air Force Base in California or Randolph Air Force Base in Texas.

The senior member of the SVS group was Major General Vasiliev from the garrison in Bakovka, near Moscow, a smart, cultured man, but he was stationed in Lagos, at the USSR Embassy in Nigeria, and the Nigerians very rarely let him into the Air Force base in Kano, where, as a combat pilot, he wanted to periodically "fly up" a MiG-21. There was no direct contact between the SVS group and the USSR Embassy. We learned about the general's visits to Kano from radiograms from the Embassy, which were received on the Motorola radio station by the Aeroflot representative at the Kano airport. Letters from home and Soviet newspapers were delivered from the Embassy very rarely, at best, about once a month. On site, the group was led by a specialist with the regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Porfiryevich Logvinenko, who had arrived from the Leningrad Military District, where he was deputy commander of the air regiment, a spiteful and vindictive man. His character became apparent when his deception was revealed: for some reason he introduced himself as a colonel and regiment commander.

By Russian standards, the city of Kano was a large village, although it had been known since the 9th century as a trading center and the main city of the ancient African state of Kano in the upper reaches of the Jakara River.

* * *

Its founder, according to legend, was certain Kano, a blacksmith from the Gaia people, who in ancient times went to Dalla Hill in search of iron. In the early 12th century, Kano City became the capital of the Hausa state of Kano. In the 19th century, it was the capital of the Kano Emirate, and in 1903 the emirate submitted to the British rule and was included in the British Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. The emirate existed until the administrative reform of 1966-1967, carried out by the government of independent Nigeria.

Modern Kano is a major commercial and industrial center. The old city is surrounded by a powerful city wall built in the 15th century; the central mosque is the largest in Nigeria. The city has developed weaving, dyeing, leather and pottery crafts. Dyed leather from Kano was sold to North Africa, and from there it was taken to Europe, where such materials were called Moroccan leather.

There was a hotel in town called Daula with an outdoor swimming pool, where our general Vasiliev stayed when in Kano. After our huts called "bungalows," Daula was luxury, but only for hotel guests. We went there to swim in the pool and drink beer, pretending to be the general's guests and in his absence, making a "poker face," which reflected complete imperturbability. Waiters and security rarely bothered us with questions about what rooms we were staying in.

Another Saturday night activity was the French Le Circle and Mingles Club. There was a great selection of the latest hits at the discotheque, and we listened to all the latest pop music there. There was also a City Club in Kano, where we watched new movies a couple of times, like Saturday Night Fever and The Godfather.

Once I managed to go to the Bagauda reservoir, near the town of Bebeji, which was located about 45 km southwest of Kano. There was a hotel "Bagauda Resort" and a beach on the reservoir shore. Since we did not have our own cars, I tailed after, a German pilot instructor, who served at the same Kano Air Force Base and lived nearby (maybe his name was fictitious). In front of his house, on the lawn, there was a tall radio mast on guy wires for communication with Germany, as he explained. According to Winnie, he was a former Luftwaffe pilot, survived an air crash, recovered, demobilized and started working as a private pilot instructor.

Winnie had a small Japanese Daihatsu jeep, which we took to the Bagauda reservoir and got stuck in quicksand on the shore of the lake. We had to look for large flat stones to pull the jeep out of the sand with a jack. After more than an hour of fiddling, I took a dip in the lake, but Vinnie did not go into the water, saying that he was water-shy. I still do not understand the reason for his phobia.

Tiger fish were caught in the lake. Those African fish are found in many rivers and lakes and are fierce predators with characteristic, disproportionately large teeth. The goliath tiger fish (Hydrocynus goliath) is one of the most famous tiger fish. They say that the largest of the recorded specimens weighed up to 70 kg. An avid fisherman from our group, Ivan Zheleznov, hunted for a tiger fish for six months. The fish tore all the gear together with giant triple hooks, but finally he caught it. There was a sea of joy. Vanya dried the fish's head with an animal jaw as a souvenir and covered it with varnish.

Another useful activity in Kano was buying and processing the horns of African zebu cows at the meat market. In order for the cow horn to turn into a smooth, elegant product, it had to be worked on. First of all, the horns were boiled. The stench was terrible. No, the horns were not boiled to make a strong broth or to prepare solyanka soup, but to separate the useless porous core from the horn shell. The horn was boiled in water over high heat for half an hour, and then the core was knocked out by simply hitting the horn with a hard object. To be honest, what I saw was a complete surprise to me – I thought that the horn itself was initially hollow. Once the core was separated, the bone shell could be processed and made into a chic gift "horn of plenty", for example, for wine. The huge twisted horn of an adult zebu cow could hold, in my opinion, half a bucket of wine! In length, such accessories could reach up to one and a half meters between the two extreme points, and each horn could weigh up to 5 kilograms. This business was especially liked by four Georgians-deliverers, who came to Kano for one year to supervise the assembly and testing of two new training aircraft MiG-21UM, which were produced at the aircraft plant in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. It was rumored that the Georgians got rich not so much from large travel salaries, but from selling the processed horns at home.

For some reason, Soviet military specialists believed that Soviet household appliances, such as irons, electric kettles, as well as portable radios and light portable TVs, were very popular in Nigeria. After their vacations, many brought this equipment for sale, but it turned out that no one needed it. Soviet TVs did not receive Nigerian TV channels, our radios did not have an FM frequency scale, and Soviet irons and kettles were not particularly popular. Some tried to get rid of them by simply giving them to someone as a gift, and one translator even tried to pay with an iron for the intimate services of a local priestess of love.

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