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History of Nigerian Army: Facts You Need To Know


The Nigerian military is undoubtedly among the largest in Africa.  It is divided into the 3 components, vis-à-vis, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Air Force.  It was first established in 1900 and its former name was Royal West African Frontier Force.
Its name was however changed to the Nigerian Army in 1960; that was shortly after Nigeria’s independence from Great Britain.
Nigerian Army’s present Commandeer-in-Chief is the president of Nigeria and that is General Mohammadu Buhari. Present Defense Minister is Mansur Dan Ali. The present Chief of Defense Staff is General Abayomi Olonisakin.
The Nigerian Army had participated in a number of wars till date. Some of them are the Congo Crises that occurred between 30th of June, 1960 and 25th of November 1965 and the Nigerian Civil War that occurred between July 1967 and January 1970.

 Others are the Chadian Military affair that occurred in 1983, the First Liberian Civil War that occurred between 1989 and 1997, the Second Liberian Civil War that occurred between 1999 and 2003 and the Sierra Leone Civil War that occurred between 23rd of March, 1991 and 18th of January, 2002
Also, they participated in the Conflict in the Niger Delta that had started since 2004 and it is still ongoing and the Boko Haram Insurgency that started since 2009 and it is still ongoing.
The Nigerian Army is prominent among members of ECOMOG.  The Nigerian army had also been able to seize power from democratically elected presidents two times already, namely 1966 and 1983.
There had been a number of military-to-military coups over the years too. In actual fact, the last military rule in Nigeria just ended less than 20 years ago in 1999.
Before the Nigerian civil war, number of men and officers in the military was about 18,000. However, the number got expanded to about 126,000 after the Nigerian Civil War. This was one of the factors that led to ability of the Nigerian army to seize power for over 30 years.
One of the most uncomfortable aspect of this is that the Nigerian army was not contributing anything to the country’s GDP; yet, they are taking so much out of it.
Despite the increase in size of the Nigerian Army, there is decline in professionalism and response to duty. During the civil war, number of non-commissioned officers increased a great deal and there were very few commissioned officers available. This led to a situation in which ordinary lieutenant-colonels 
were commanding brigades.
Indiscipline became the order of the day too and civilians were the ones that bore the brunt mostly. Infantry tactics too were poorly executed as a result.
Activities of the Nigerian army are directed by the Nigerian Army Council (NAC).
If the truth must be told, the Nigerian Army is among the best equipped military outfits in Africa.  The idea of having Divisions in the Nigerian Army started from the time of the Nigerian Civil War.
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