Nigerian Armed Forces and Peace Missions Across Africa

Nigerian Armed Forces and Peace Missions Across Africa

By Mukhtar Ya’u Madobi

Nigeria, also known as the ‘Giant of Africa ‘ is the most densely populated black nation on the surface of the earth.

Over the years, the country’s dazzling performance in the maintenance of peace and security within the entire African region is second to none. Nigeria was very crucial in the restoration of peace and normalcy to some war-torn African states.

With a force of more than 223,000 active personnel, the Nigerian military is one of the largest uniformed combat services in Africa. According to Global Firepower, the Nigerian Armed Forces are the fourth-most powerful military in Africa, and ranked 35th on its list internationally.

The Nigerian Army’s participation in peacekeeping operation dates back to over 50 years. General Aguiyi Ironsi led Nigerian Army troops out for the first time in a peace support mission to the war-ravaged Congo in the 1960s.

The Nigerian Army success in this endeavour endeared her to the International Community as a reliable peace partner. Since then, the Nigerian Army has continued to contribute to world leace whenever the Federal Government of Nigeria decided to participate.

For example, at the sub regional level, Nigeria played a prominent role in the integrative and peace building efforts within the West-African region. At the regional level, she has contributed to various peacebuilding and peacekeeping efforts on the African Continent in places such as Somalia, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Globally, Nigeria participated in conflict areas such as Lebanon, the area of the Former Yugoslavia and Kuwait. To date, Nigeria has contributed to more than 40 United Nations, Organisation of African Unity/African Union and ECOWAS Missions.

This big brother role lends credence to the assertion that Nigeria remains a significant actor in peacekeeping, particularly within Africa.

There is no doubt that the Armed Forces of Nigeria were at the epicenter in dousing the tensions when internal conflict broke out in Liberia. The conflict resulted in the killing of around 200,000 people and this eventually led to the involvement of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and of the United Nations.

The country’s civil war began in 1989, when Charles Taylor returned to Liberia from neighbouring Ivory Coast. He brought with him a force of rebels – the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) – seeking to oust the repressive regime of the then-president, Sergeant Samuel Doe.

Nigeria contributed immensely to the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), an interventionist mediation force to end the protracted Liberian civil war, where the government of Nigeria puts the financial cost at 8 billion dollars, apart from a large number of lost and maimed soldiers.

The civil war in Liberia is significant, because it served as an important example of a new type of external intervention – intervention by a sub regional organization (with Nigerian Military at the center of crisis control).

Today, Nigeria shared the joy of the return to democracy by Liberia. This is due to the resilience and doggedness of Nigerian troops who were very committed in discharging their peace mission as at then.

To that effect, the Chief of Staff (COS), Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), Major General Prince Charles Johnson III was recently in Nigeria for a thank you visit to the Nigerian Military for their past and continued support in ensuring peace security in Liberia.

The Army Chief along his entourage took time and paid separate courtesy calls to the Nigeria’s service Chiefs including the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor.

He therefore sought for continued Nigeria’s Military support to the AFL especially in areas of bilateral relations, collaboration and capacity building training aimed at boosting defense and security.

Major General Johnson noted that, the present peace enjoyed today by Liberians was as a result of the supreme sacrifices made by the men and women of the Nigerian Military.

He said that Nigeria and Liberia have had long standing defence and bilateral relations, admitting that, “today Liberia has witnessed seventeen years of relative peace and stability because of the sacrifices of men and women of the AFN, for which Liberia is ever grateful and indebted to Nigeria”.

Thus, the Liberian Army Chief, as a sign of expression, restates the commitment of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) to honour and immortalize the officers of AFN in the annals of Liberia’s history, who paid a heavy price during peacekeeping operations in the country.

He also paid glowing tributes to late Lieutenant General LN Yusuf and Major General SA Abdurrahman, who served as the first and second COS of the new AFL before handing over to an indigenous COS.

While responding, CDS Irabor noted that the Nigerian Military has remained committed to ensuring stability in the West African subregions and beyond.

He said that the Nigerian armed forces was proud to have actively participated in the support efforts to restore peace to Liberia during its security challenges.

In addition, Irabor assured the Liberian military chief that the Nigerian military would continue to render the needed support to the Liberian armed forces in building its capacity required to undertake the responsibilities of defending and securing its nation.

On the other hand, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Oladayo Amao has expressed the willingness of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) to assist the AFL in developing its airpower capability.

He assured of NAF continued support to provide recurrency training for the only two existing AFL pilots who were trained in Nigeria. According to Amao, NAF would further assist in training pilots of AFL to ensure operationalization of its Air Wing.

“Whenever you have pilots for further training, be rest assured that our training schools are open for them to become full-fledged pilots under the Nigerian Air Force pilots training programme”. Amao added.

He further advised the AFL to take advantage of NAF’s technical and engineering schools for non-pilot courses such as the Air Traffic Control and ground support crew.

Nevertheless, this historic visit by one of the beneficiary countries of Nigeria’s peace keeping mission has once again affirmed its vital role in enhancing stability within the African region.

Notwithstanding, the Nigerian Military can still achieve a lot through collaboration with other countries especially in areas of intelligence gatherings and information sharing. Thus, the influence of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) can never be downplayed in exercising this prominent role.

Mukhtar is a Staff Writer with the Emergency Digest.