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Nigerian Military

Nigerian Armed Forces
Nigerian Defence Forces Flag.svg
Flag of the Nigerian military
Current form 1960
Service branches  Nigerian Army
 Nigerian Navy
 Nigerian Air Force
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief President 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.


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