TheNigerian Army (NA) is theland force of theNigerian Armed Forces. It is the largest component of theNigerian Armed Forces. ThePresident of Nigeria is the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Army, and its professional head is theChief of Army Staff, who is the highest rankingmilitary officer of the Nigerian Army.[2][3] It is governed by the Nigerian Army Council (NAC).[4] The Nigerian Army is operationally and geographically divided into ten divisions, the basic field formation. The army has been involved in operations throughout the country, most especially during theNigerian Civil War, and has undertaken major operations abroad. Nigerian Army officers have served aschiefs of defence in other countries, with Brigadier GeneralMaxwell Khobe serving as Sierra Leone chief of staff in 1998–1999,[5] and Nigerian officers acting as Command Officer-in-Charge of theArmed Forces of Liberia from at least 2007.
The Nigerian Army traces its history to LieutenantJohn Hawley Glover'sConstabulary Force, which was largely composed of freedHausa slaves in 1863.[6] The Constabulary Force was established with the primary goal of protecting theRoyal Niger Company and its assets from constant military incursions by the neighboringAshanti Empire.[7] This policing force would slowly grow in size and capability to meet the needs of the British Empire in its West African territories, and would later form the nucleus of both the Gold Coast and the Hausa Constabulary, both of which would become theGhana Regiment andSouthern Nigeria Regiment respectively by 1879. These regiments would be incorporated into theRoyal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) in 1900 by the BritishColonial Office, following British military experiences in theBenin Expedition of 1897, as well as wider British efforts of complete reorganization of its African colonial units such as that of theEgyptian Army earlier in the year. During theSecond World War, British-trained Nigerian troops saw action with the1st (West Africa) Infantry Brigade, the81st and the82nd (West Africa) Divisions which fought in theEast African Campaign (World War II) and in the Far East.
The roots of the ethnic cleavages which started to rip through the army after independence had some of their origins in colonial recruiting practices, with line infantry and the artillery being raised from the North, but during the expansion of the force during theSecond World War a large proportion of more educated southerners being brought in to take up posts that required more technical training. Like inGhana, there was significant pressure to "Nigerianize" the armed forces, with, for example, two officers being promoted to Brigadier as a concession to public opinion on the occasion of the last British commander arriving inLagos. From a force of 8,000 in five infantry battalions and supporting units,[8] strength rose to around 120,000 in three divisions by the end of theNigerian Civil War in 1970.[9] In terms of doctrine, the task of the Federal Nigerian army did not fundamentally change: its task remained to close with and defeat an organized enemy.
The rapid expansion of the Nigerian Army in the wake of the civil war witnessed a severe decline in troop quality.[10] The expansion process overseen by the Nigerian army command staff led to an extreme shortage of commissioned officers, with newly created lieutenant-colonels commanding brigades, and platoons and companies often commanded by sergeants and warrant officers. This resulted in tentativecommand-and-control and in rudimentary staff work by Nigerian army personnel.[11] One result of the weak direction was that the federal government's three field divisions fought independently, and competed for men and material. Writing in a 1984 study, Major Michael Stafford of theUnited States Marine Corps noted the following: "Inexperienced, poorly trained and ineptly led soldiers manifested their lack of professionalism and indiscipline by massacres of innocent civilians and a failure to effectively execute infantry tactics."[12] Among the results of this failure of command experience and professionalism was the1967 Asaba massacre, resulting in the deaths of some one thousand civilians and individuals ofIgbo descent.
In November 1970, theU.S. intelligence community concluded the following: "The Nigerian Civil War ended with surprisingly little rancor. The defeated Igbos are accepted as fellow citizens in many parts of Nigeria, but not in some areas of former Biafra where they were once dominant. [Iboland] is an overpoperated, economically depressed area, where massive unemployment is likely to prevail for some years." Furthermore, U.S. analysts would go on to state that: "Nigeria is still very much a tribal society, in which clan, tribal and regional jealousies, hostilities and interests count for more than national attachment.General Gowon, Head of the Federal Military Government (FMG), is the accepted national leader and his popularity has grown since the end of the war. The FMG is neither very efficient nor dynamic, but the recent announcement that it intends to retain power for six more years has generated little opposition so far. The Nigerian Army, vastly expanded during the war, is both the main support to the FMG and the chief threat to it. The troops are poorly trained and disciplined and some of the officers are turning to conspiracies and plotting. We think Gowon will have great difficulty in staying in office through the period which he said is necessary before the turnover of power to civilians. His sudden removal would dim the prospects for Nigerian stability."[13]
The influence of individual personalities is generally greater in the armies of developing states, as they tend to have weaker institutional frameworks. Key personalities involved in Nigeria included then-ColonelOlusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo was particularly important due to his efforts to reorganize his command,3 Division, during the civil war to improve its logistics and administration. The reorganization he instituted permitted 3 Division to successfully conduct the offensive operations that would ultimately lead to the end the civil war in Nigeria. The Nigerian Army fought the Civil War significantly under-resourced; Obasanjo's memoirs chronicle the lack of any stocks of extra equipment for mobilisation and the "haphazard and unreliable system of procurement and provisioning" which lasted for the entire period of the war.[14] Arms embargoes imposed by several Western countries made the situation more difficult.
At the end of the Civil War, the three divisions of the Army were reorganised into four divisions, with each controlling territories running from North to South in order to deemphasise the former regional structure. Each division thus had access to the sea thereby making triservice cooperation and logistic support easier. This deployment formula was later abandoned in favour of the present assignment of sectors to the divisions. Thus 1 Division with HQ at Kaduna is allocated the North West sector; 2 Division with HQ at Ibadan South West sector, 3 Division with HQ at Jos North East sector and 82 Division with HQ at Enugu South East sector.[15]
Its formations include the1 Division, headquartered inKaduna in the north-west, and2 Division (HQIbadan in the South-West, which includes 32 Artillery Brigade atAbeokuta).[16] 2nd Division also possibly includes 4 Brigade atBenin City, with 19 Battalion atOkitipupa and 195 Battalion atAgenebode. 52 Signal Regiment may be the divisional signals unit.3 Division's headquarters is at Rukuba Cantonment,Jos, in the North-East, and includes 21 Armoured BrigadeMaiduguri, 23 BrigadeYola, and 33 Artillery Brigades.[17]81st Division (Amphibious) HQ in Lagos, which includes the 9 Brigade, based atIkeja Cantonment in northern Lagos,82nd Division (Airborne and Amphibious) HQ inEnugu in the South-East, which includes the 2 Brigade at Port Harcourt, 13 Brigade at Calabar and the 34th Artillery Brigade atObinze/Owerri. The Composite Division at Enugu was formed in 1964 as 4 Division, in 1975 became Lagos Garrison Organization; in 1981 became 4 Composite Division; became a Composite Division in May 2002.[18] 3rd Armoured Division was responsible in 1983 for the security of areas borderingChad.[19]
Lagos and Abuja have garrison commands, with the Lagos garrison as large as a division. 81st Division was previously the youngest division, formed on 26 May 2002 when the Lagos Garrison Command (as it then was) was upgraded to divisional status. The Division, therefore, inherited the security roles hitherto performed by the defunct Lagos Garrison Command.[20] However a later undated article in a Nigerian online newspaper says the 81st Division was later again renamed the Lagos Garrison Command. In the 1980s, the Army's brigades included the 7th Infantry Brigade in Sokoto. There are also Divisional Artillery Brigades, among which are the 32 and 34 Artillery Brigades,[21] ordnance corps units as well as Combat Engineer Regiments, and many other service support units spread across the country.
The7th Division (also known as JTF-RO) was established in August 2013 for the war againstBoko Haram. The creation of the new division brought to six the number of divisions. The 7th division is headquartered in Maiduguri.[22] The division includes a combat motorcycle unit as part of its 25th Task Force Brigade.[23] The purpose of this unit is stated as securing roads in Yobe and serving as a force multiplier in combat operations.[23] Training and Doctrine Command formed in 1981, and is located atMinna. It supervises the Army's schools, including the Depot.
On 27 April 2023, the Nigerian Army conducted the largestPresentation of Colours in the Commonwealth onEagle Square, Abuja, issuing 53 new colors to preexisting units and 28 colors to newly established units (81 colours being issued in total).[24]
The Nigerian Army as of 2016 consisted of some 6,000 officers and 150,000 enlisted personnel.[25]
The army itself is governed by the Nigerian Army Council (NAC). It members include:
| Post | Current Holder |
|---|---|
| Chief of the Army Staff | Lieutenant GeneralOlufemi Oluyede |
The Nigerian Army is functionally organized into combat arms, which are infantry and armoured; the combat support arms, which are artillery, engineers, signals, and intelligence.[26][27]
| Name | Headquarters | Subunits | Geographical distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Mechanized Division | Kaduna[28] |
| |
| 2nd Mechanized Division | Ibadan[28] |
| |
| 3rd Armoured Division | Jos[28] |
| |
| 6th Amphibious Division | Port Harcourt[30] |
| |
| 7th Infantry Division | Maiduguri[28] |
| |
| 8th Division | Sokoto[31] |
| |
| 81st Division (Amphibious) | Lagos[28] |
| |
| 82nd Composite Division (Airborne and Amphibious) | Enugu[28] | ||
| Guards Brigade | Abuja,Federal Capital Territory |
|
The following are installations owned by the Nigerian Army:[33]
TheTraining and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) located inMinna is responsible for doctrinal, training and combat development, and supervises training centers. There are 17 Corps Training Schools and theNigerian Army College of Logistics (NACOL).[26][28] The Army sponsors theNigerian Military School atZaria andCommand Secondary Schools all over the federation.
In December 1983 the new régime of the Head of State of Nigeria, Major GeneralMuhammadu Buhari, announced that Nigeria could no longer afford an activist anti-colonial role in Africa.Anglophone members of theEconomic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) establishedECOMOG, dominated by the Nigerian Army, in 1990 to intervene in thecivil war in Liberia.[34] Smaller army forces had previously carried out UN and ECOWAS deployments in theformer Yugoslavia,Angola,Rwanda,Somalia, andSierra Leone.[35]
The anti-colonial policy statement did not deter Nigeria under GeneralsIbrahim Babangida in 1990 andSani Abacha in 1997 from sending peacekeeping troops as part ofECOMOG under the auspices of ECOWAS into Liberia and later intoSierra Leone when civil wars broke out in those countries. PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo in August 2003 committed Nigerian troops once again into Liberia,[36] at the urging of the United States, to provide an interim presence until the UN's forceUNMIL arrived.Charles Taylor was subsequently eased out of power by U.S. pressure[37] and exiled to Nigeria.
In October 2004, Nigerian troops were deployed intoDarfur, Sudan to spearhead anAfrican Union force to protect civilians there.[38]
In January 2013, Nigeria began to deploy troops to Mali as part of theAfrican-led International Support Mission to Mali.[39][40]
Nigeria claimed to have contributed more than twenty thousand troops and police officers to various UN missions since 1960. TheNigeria Police Force and troops have served in places likeUNIPOM (UN India-Pakistan Observer mission) 1965,UNIFIL inLebanon 1978, the UN observer mission,UNIIMOG supervising the Iran-Iraq ceasefire in 1988, formerYugoslavia 1998,East Timor 1999, and in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) 2004.
Despite a disproportionate emphasis on the materiel and sophistication of the Nigerian Armed Forces, and despite possessing some formidable hardware, the Army has been hamstrung by technical deficiency and an exceptionally poor standard of maintenance.[41] Its overabundance of foreign suppliers, includingAustria,Brazil,France,Germany,Italy,Sweden,Switzerland,Romania,Turkey,Ukraine, the formerSoviet Union, theUnited States and theUnited Kingdom, has also complicated logistics. Calculating the size and scope of replacement inventories alone is impossible given the menagerie of equipment in use.[41][42][43]
The Nigerian Army maintains at least eighty-two different weapon systems and 194 types of ammunition, of sixty-two different categories, from fourteen manufacturers.[41]
The Nigerian Army achieved an historic milestone after it activated its Aviation Corps in 2024 when it took delivery of two Bell UH-1H, "Huey" helicopters. The Nigerian Army Aviation Corps has over 60 aircraft on order which includes:
About $3.2 million was allocated for the development of a hangar to accommodate these incoming fleet at theBola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport,Minna, Niger State.[44]
Negotiations to procure 4HAL Prachand attack helicopters are at an advanced stage. Nigerian pilots are trained inIndia on operating helicopters likeHAL Dhruv helping the transition easier.[45]
