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Between Buhari, the Airforce and Goodluck Jonathan: First Indigenous Drone Controversy, Explained.

President Muhammadu Buhari was in Kaduna on Thursday to commission what he called “Nigeria’s first indigenously developed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle”, but on the 17th of December 2013, former President Goodluck Jonathan was also in Kaduna to commission the same “…first indigenous unmanned aerial vehicle”. This fact has led to massive criticism from the opposition whereas ETN24’s findings show that, while the President may have erred in naming “TSAIGUMI” the first indigenously developed drone, the confusion as to what “first indigenous” means predates Buhari and the Airforce seem to have been confusing everyone with technicalities.

In January 2013, four young Airforce Officers from Nigerian Air Force School of Engineers, Aircraft Design Centre, Kaduna, were said to have dazzled the then Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Ita Okon Bassey-Ewa, when they displayed to him an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), referred to as drone, which could fly non-stop for about 4 hours at 3000 feet. The drone was conceptualized, designed and built by them in Kaduna under the direct supervision of the Provost of the Nigerian Air Force, NAF Institute of Technology, Prof. Emmanuel Ezugwu.

By December that same year, then President Goodluck Jonathan commissions the drone describing it as the first to be indigenously produced and it was named Gulma which means “Gossip” in Hausa.

However, by the standard Mr. Buhari is being held to, Mr. Jonathan’s pronouncement could not be said to be accurate as, earlier in January, the 4 flight lieutenants, as they spoke of their work, said before this they had made several others which have been improved on. These Drones were named Amebo I, Amebo II, and Amebo III. It was commissioned in 2011. By 2012, The Commandant of the Nigerian Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna, Air Vice Marshal John Oshoniyi said about Amebo

“It is pertinent to note that following the successful launch of Amebo II last year, a modified and much-improved version of the codenamed Amebo III was produced and exhibited during the Air Expo 2012 organized by the Nigerian Air Force. This latest version is awaiting test flight.”

He was speaking at a news conference as part of activities marking the institution’s 41st graduation.

Later on, Gulma was said to be an improvement of Amebo I and II, the same way Tsaigumi is said to be an improvement of Gulma. Gulma was called first, not because it was first but because it was launched, Tsaigumi is called first because it was launched and it has reached the stage of mass production. The Air Force hardly explained that Amebo and Gulma were not ready, even as its elaborate events gave the impression that they were.

Explanation came when in 2014, foreign drones were hovering around Sambisa instead of that of NAF. NAF PR & Information Director, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas, explained the situation with Nigerian-made drone, GULMA, in a statement on Tuesday, May 27, 2014. NAF explained that the model showed President Jonathan was a prototype and finally stated that it was not mass produced. It also said the pilots needed to remotely operate the drone were not completely trained yet. Even the imported UAVs imported from Israel, 8 years before Gulam, were also grounded due to lack of spare parts and inability to conduct maintenance.

How Indigenous was Gulma?

While all 4 flight lieutenants were Nigerians, they had bagged Masters Degrees in various fields related to avionics from Cranfield University, England, after their first degrees from the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.

The project itself was a three-year effort in collaboration with Cranfield University of United Kingdom, although with funding from the Federal Government.

Enter Tsaigumi

After President Buhari pronounced this new drone as the first indigenous, the Nigerian Air Force, through its spokesman, seems to contradict the President as it says Gulma was indeed the first indigenous but Tsaigumi is the first operational.

The Air Force now describes Gumi as a prototype, as it did Amebo, without answering the question of why Amebo was not, by the same standard, named the first.

NAF spokesman now says Gulma was an experimental UAV, which was developed in 2013, as a technological demonstrator used to gather performance data on UAV systems. Whereas these were not the functions stated by the then President himself or the Chief of Air Staff as they launched Gulma in 2013. NAF also explains that Amebo was produced as a project work by some of its student in a UK University. This is different from its 2012 claim which says it did launch a version of Amebo and exhibited it.

One drone with a name seems to be an improvement of a former one with, strangely, some other name. It is hoped that Tsaigumi does not end up as just another prototype.

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