Nigerian Armed Forces

Nigerian Armed Forces
Flag of the Nigerian military
Current form	1960
Service branches	Nigerian Army  Nigerian Navy  Nigerian Air Force
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	Muhammadu Buhari
Defence Minister	Mansur Dan Ali
Chief of Defence Staff	General Abayomi Olonisakin
Manpower
Active personnel	162,000
Reserve personnel	32,000
Expenditures
Budget	₦429 billion ($2.152 billion)
Percent of GDP	0.4% (2016)
Related articles
History	Military history of Nigeria Congo Crisis Nigerian Civil War 1983 Chadian military affair First Liberian Civil War Second Liberian Civil War Sierra Leone Civil War Conflict in the Niger Delta (2004–present) Northern Mali conflict (2012–present) Boko Haram insurgency (2009–present)

The Nigerian Armed Forces are the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Its origins lie in the elements of the Royal West African Frontier Force that became Nigerian when independence was granted in 1960. In 1956 the Nigeria Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) was renamed the Nigerian Military Forces, RWAFF, and in April 1958 the colonial government of Nigeria took over from the British War Office control of the Nigerian Military Forces.

Since its creation the Nigerian military has fought in a civil war – the conflict with Biafra in 1967–70 – and sent peacekeeping forces abroad both with the United Nations and as the backbone of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Cease-fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It has also seized power twice at home (1966 & 1983).

In the aftermath of the civil war, the much expanded size of the military, around 250,000 in 1977, consumed a large part of Nigeria’s resources under military rule for little productive return. The great expansion of the military during the civil war further entrenched the existing military hold on Nigerian society carried over from the first military regime. In doing so, it played an appreciable part in reinforcing the military’s nearly first-among-equals status within Nigerian society, and the linked decline in military effectiveness. Olusegun Obasanjo, who by 1999 had become President, bemoaned the fact in his inaugural address that year: ‘... Professionalism has been lost... my heart bleeds to see the degradation in the proficiency of the military.’

Training establishments in Nigeria include the prestigious officer entry Nigerian Defence Academy at Kaduna, the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, and the National War College at Abuja. The U.S. commercial military contractor Military Professional Resources Inc. has been involved from around 1999–2000 in advising on civil-military relations for the armed forces.