By Eshioromeh Sebastian
President Bola Tinubu has unveiled a comprehensive Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan aimed at ending Nigeria’s 17-year scourge of insecurity by strengthening the country’s security architecture, improving military effectiveness, and ensuring a coordinated response to emerging threats.
The plan, according to a press statement by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, provides a long-term framework for aligning defence priorities, operational requirements, capability development, and expenditure with Nigeria’s current and anticipated security challenges.
It is a major component of President Tinubu’s determination to reposition the nation’s security architecture toward a more coordinated, intelligence-led, technology-enabled, and prevention-oriented system capable of addressing terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and other forms of criminality.
15,000 terrorists eliminated, 130,000 surrender
In the last three years, the scale of the administration’s ongoing military operations across the country has led to the elimination of more than 15,000 Boko Haram terrorists and bandits, with more than 130,000 fighters and dependents of Boko Haram having surrendered through Operation Safe Corridor, the Federal Government’s rehabilitation programme for repentant insurgents.
The figures underscore the administration’s two-phase approach of sustained military operations and non-kinetic interventions to address insecurity.
Four new Army divisions, expanded manpower
To strengthen the Nigerian Army’s operational capacity and improve responses to security threats, President Tinubu has created four new Army divisions and restructured existing military formations.
The reforms aim to expand operational coverage, decentralise military operations, and enable troops to respond more swiftly to security threats across the country.
The President has also approved the establishment of two additional Army depots in Osogbo, Osun State, and in Amasiri-Edda, Ebonyi State, to expand military training capacity and accelerate the recruitment and training of new soldiers.
Each depot can accommodate 6,000 recruits at a time, bringing their combined training capacity to 12,000 soldiers. The Osogbo facility’s capacity is already being demonstrated, with 5,210 recruits currently undergoing training there.
The expansion of training facilities is expected to reduce recruit turnaround time and increase the number of soldiers available for deployment.
To further the manpower expansion drive, President Tinubu also approved recruiting an additional 28,000 soldiers to strengthen the military’s presence on the ground and enhance its operational effectiveness.
The President also approved recruiting 50,000 additional police officers as part of broader efforts to reinforce internal security, improve policing capacity, and strengthen the country’s response to criminal activities.
Investing in personnel welfare
Beyond investments in equipment, technology and training, the administration is also investing in military accommodation and operational infrastructure to improve personnel welfare and effectiveness.
One such project is the 700-unit military barracks in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, designed to provide military personnel with a professional living and working environment and essential military infrastructure.
The facilities are expected to provide the accommodation and operational support personnel need while strengthening the military’s capacity to maintain an effective presence in the area.
These measures reflect the administration’s determination to address manpower and infrastructure gaps, improve the capacity of security agencies, and ensure personnel are adequately trained, equipped, and deployed to areas facing security challenges.
Intelligence, surveillance and coordination
Under the Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan, the Federal Government is adopting a more strategic approach to national defence by ensuring that investments in the security sector are guided by clearly identified threats, operational requirements and national priorities.
The plan is expected to strengthen combat readiness, address critical capability gaps, optimise available resources and minimise unnecessary expenditure and wastage.
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