President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision to approve the deployment of Nigerian troops to the Republic of Benin has ignited a wave of public concern and rightly so.
At a time when Nigeria is grappling with its own overwhelming security crises, the move appears poorly timed. Across the country, insecurity has reached alarming levels. In the North-West, bandits continue to terrorize rural communities, carrying out mass abductions, killing villagers, and imposing illegal levies. The North-East remains destabilized by remnants of Boko Haram and ISWAP, whose sporadic attacks keep millions in fear.
In the Middle Belt, violent clashes between farmers and herders have escalated, leading to destruction of property, loss of lives, and widespread displacement.
Even regions once considered relatively safe including parts of the South-West and South-East are now plagued by kidnapping-for-ransom, highway robberies, and politically motivated violence.
The consequences are devastating. Thousands of Nigerians have been killed or maimed. Families are mourning. Schools have shut down in many rural areas.
Farmers are abandoning farmlands due to fear, contributing to soaring food prices and deepening hunger. Businesses are folding under the weight of insecurity, and investors are watching the country with growing hesitation.
Yet, despite this dire internal situation, the Tinubu administration has chosen to divert some of its limited military capacity to an external assignment in Benin Republic.
While regional military cooperation is important especially within ECOWAS such collaboration must never come at the expense of a nation’s own internal stability. Nigeria is not currently in a position of surplus strength to project military influence outside its borders.
This decision raises critical questions:
Why is Nigeria extending help abroad when it has not yet secured its own house? How can the government justify sending troops to another country while hundreds of Nigerian communities remain unprotected? What message does this send to the millions of Nigerians whose lives are constantly endangered?
At best, the deployment appears ill-timed. At worst, it reflects a troubling prioritisation of external political optics over domestic safety.
The symbolism is damaging: a government that seems more eager to demonstrate regional leadership than to confront the violence devastating its own people.
Moreover, Nigeria’s military is already stretched thin. Troops are deployed across multiple internal battlefronts fighting insurgency, combating banditry, quelling communal conflicts, and responding to kidnapping hotspots.
Morale is low, resources are tight, and the logistical demands are enormous. Sending troops abroad under these conditions risks further weakening an already strained security architecture.
What Nigeria urgently needs is a full-scale, coordinated security overhaul better intelligence gathering, strengthened policing, modernised equipment, improved welfare for troops, and stronger collaboration with local communities. These priorities require undivided attention and resources, not distractions.
President Tinubu must therefore reconsider this deployment and realign national priorities.
The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens. It is a responsibility that cannot be outsourced, postponed, or overshadowed by external engagements.
Nigeria cannot afford symbolic military adventures when its own people live in fear. Before extending stability to others, the Tinubu administration must build it at home.