Editing Nigerian Armed Forces (section)

==History==

The origin of the Nigerian Armed Forces lies 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query2/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ng0140)|title=Library of Congress Country Studies, Nigeria|website=loc.gov|access-date=4 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Shaibu |first=Margaret Alabi |title=Democratic institutions and Nigerian military regimes 1966-1999 |date=2018 |publisher=Nigerian Defence Academy |isbn=978-978-967-329-2 |location=Kaduna |publication-date=2018 |pages=47 |language=English}}</ref>

Shortly after its formation, the NAF was engaged in combat operations against the secessionist state of [[Biafra]], during the [[Nigerian Civil War]] from 1967 to 1970. At this point, the Nigerian military ballooned in strength from 85,000 personnel in 1967 to more than 250,000 troops by the war's end.<ref name="REF00">Karl DeRouen & U. K. Heo (2007). ''Civil wars of the world: Major conflicts since World War II''. Tomo I. Santa Bárbara: ABC CLIO, p. 569. {{ISBN|978-1-85109-919-1}}.</ref> In the years following the civil war, the Nigerian Armed Forces were halved in size from its post-war height to approximately 125,000 men. Despite this contraction in the size and funding of its armed forces, Nigeria would boast the only military in [[West Africa]] capable of engaging in foreign military operations, such as during its intervention in [[First Liberian Civil War|Liberian civil war]] in 1990.<ref>{{cite web |title=Report: Corruption in Nigeria - Military Capabilities |url=http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-9467.html |access-date=7 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Waging War to Keep the Peace: The ECOMOG Intervention and Human Rights (Human Rights Watch Report, June 1993) |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/liberia/#1 |access-date=6 February 2017 |website=Hrw.org}}</ref>

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."<ref>Obasanjo, quoted in Herbert M. Howe, Ambiguous Order: Military Forces in African States, Lynne Rienner, Boulder/London, 2001, p.54. Obasanjo has also been accused of misuse of his personal position for profit.</ref>

Today, the NAF faces a number of domestic challenges which continue to undermine stability within Nigeria and the region as a whole. Some of these threats include the ongoing conflict against the [[jihadist]] [[List of rebel groups that control territory|rebel group]], [[Boko Haram]] in [[Boko Haram insurgency|northeastern Nigeria]], which has been in effect since July 2009. Likewise, Nigeria has been engaged in a long-running [[Conflict in the Niger Delta|anti-piracy campaign]] in the [[Niger Delta]], which has threatened the vital [[Petroleum industry in Nigeria|petroleum industry]] in the country, which is the source of 90% of Nigeria's exports and 35% of the government's revenue.<ref name="Reuters">{{Cite news |date=8 March 2011 |title=UPDATE 2-Nigeria will boost oil output if OPEC asks |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/nigeria-opec-output-idUSLDE7270W120110308 |access-date=29 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=August 2004 |title=Taxation and State Participation in Nigeria's Oil and Gas Sector |url=https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/18078 |journal=[[World Bank]] |language=en-US}}</ref> Compounding this state of affairs is the role corruption plays in the ongoing attempts to strengthen the armed forces. Corruption has historically weakened the Nigerian military's capacity to face internal security threats and is cited as being responsible for the continued longevity of rebels and terrorists operating throughout the nation.<ref>{{cite news |date=17 May 2017 |title=Military graft undermines Nigeria's fight against Boko Haram: Transparency International |newspaper=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-security/military-graft-undermines-nigerias-fight-against-boko-haram-transparency-international-idUSKCN18D2XS |access-date=7 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Report: Corruption in Nigerian Military Benefits Boko Haram |date=19 May 2017 |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/corruption-nigeria-military-boko-haram-report/3862196.html |access-date=7 September 2021}}</ref>

In spite of these challenges to its operational readiness, the Nigerian Armed Forces have committed to a number of wide-ranging modernization programs to bolster the discipline and firepower of its troops. This includes the acquisition of new armored vehicles, combat aircraft and aerial reconnaissance drones, and the refurbishing of naval vessels, which had suffered from prolonged periods of poor or minimal maintenance. These trends in the development of the armed forces as a fighting force, as well as efforts to combat corruption within the ranks of military personnel and government bureaucracy, have been critically important in the ability of Nigeria to confront challenges to its national security and stability in the wider region of West Africa as a whole.<ref>{{cite news |title=Nigerian Army fields Isotrex armoured vehicles |url=https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/nigerian-army-fields-isotrex-armoured-vehicles |access-date=7 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Nigerian Air Force inducts three JF-17 Thunder multirole aircraft |url=https://www.airforce-technology.com/news/nigerian-air-force-inducts-three-jf-17-thunder-multirole-aircraft/ |access-date=7 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Nigeria buys two M-346 squadrons |url=https://aircosmosinternational.com/article/nigeria-buys-two-m-346-squadrons-3162 |access-date=7 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Promoting International Energy Security: Volume 4, The Gulf of Guinea |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt3fh07g.13 |doi=10.7249/j.ctt3fh07g.13 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |jstor=10.7249/j.ctt3fh07g.13}}</ref>