The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has announced that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s proposed Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan is ready, describing it as a major step towards addressing Nigeria’s security challenges.
The council said the comprehensive plan is designed to strengthen Nigeria’s defence architecture, improve military effectiveness and establish a coordinated response to terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other security threats across the country.
In a statement issued on Sunday, and signed by the APC Presidential Campaign Council spokesperson, Dele Alake, the administration said the initiative would provide a long-term framework for aligning defence priorities, operational requirements, military capabilities and expenditure with the country’s present and emerging security challenges.
According to the statement, the Tinubu administration’s security strategy focuses on a coordinated, intelligence-led, technology-driven and prevention-oriented approach to tackling insecurity.
The council disclosed that ongoing military operations over the past three years had resulted in the elimination of more than 15,000 terrorists and bandits.
It also claimed that over 130,000 Boko Haram fighters and their dependants had surrendered through Operation Safe Corridor, the Federal Government’s rehabilitation programme for repentant insurgents.
The council described the figures as evidence of the administration’s two-pronged security strategy, combining sustained military operations with non-kinetic interventions aimed at addressing the root causes of insecurity.
Expansion of Military Formations and part of efforts to strengthen the operational capacity of the Nigerian Army, the statement said President Tinubu had approved the creation of four new Army divisions and the restructuring of existing military formations.
The move, according to the council, is intended to expand military coverage, decentralise operations and enable troops to respond more rapidly to security threats across the country.
It further disclosed that the President had approved the establishment of two additional Army depots in Osogbo, Osun State, and Amasiri-Edda, Ebonyi State, to expand military training capacity and accelerate the recruitment of new soldiers.
The two facilities are expected to accommodate 6,000 recruits each, bringing their combined training capacity to 12,000 soldiers at a time.
The Osogbo facility is already hosting 5,210 recruits undergoing training, according to the statement.
The council said the expansion would reduce recruitment and training timelines while increasing the number of personnel available for deployment.
It added that Tinubu had also approved the recruitment of an additional 28,000 soldiers to strengthen military presence and improve operational effectiveness.
Similarly, the President reportedly approved the recruitment of 50,000 additional police officers as part of broader efforts to reinforce internal security, expand policing capacity and improve responses to criminal activities.
Investment in Military Infrastructure and Personnel Welfare
Beyond recruitment, equipment and technology, the administration is also investing in military accommodation and operational infrastructure to improve personnel welfare.
The statement cited the ongoing 700-unit military barracks project in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, as one of the initiatives designed to provide military personnel with improved accommodation and essential operational facilities.
According to the council, the project is expected to strengthen the military’s operational presence in the area while providing personnel with a more conducive living and working environment.
It maintained that the various initiatives were aimed at addressing manpower and infrastructure gaps while ensuring that security personnel were adequately trained, equipped and deployed to areas facing security challenges.
The APC Presidential Campaign Council further stated that the Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan would introduce a more strategic approach to national defence by ensuring that investments in the security sector were guided by clearly identified threats, operational requirements and national priorities.
It said the framework was expected to improve combat readiness, address critical capability gaps, optimise available resources and minimise unnecessary expenditure and wastage.
The council expressed confidence that the proposed reforms would strengthen Nigeria’s security architecture and improve the country’s capacity to respond to evolving security threats.
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