Nigerian Presidential Candidate Tinubu Pledges Military Build-Up to Boost Security
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Nigeria ruling party speaks during the flag off campaign ahead of the 2023 Presidential election in Jos, Nigeria, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022.
Although Nigerian national security forces have struggled to contain the insurgency in the northern part of the country, unrest has continued to grow. This is why the campaign promises of candidates running for president in Nigeria tend to focus on security issues and contain pledges to end the rampant terrorism once and for all.Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress – Nigeria’s governing party, said he would increase military numbers to ensure security in the country if he wins the elections, scheduled to be held in February 2023.“To prosper at home in peace and stability, Nigeria needs to uphold its national security, unity, territorial integrity, sovereign independence and safety,” he said. Tinubu outlined his vision for security, the economy, and foreign policy in an address to the think-tank Chatham House in London.His political ally and governor of Kaduna state in northern Nigeria, Nasir El-Rufai, answering questions on security, said that banditry, terrorism, and separatism require “a new approach,” referring to plans to increase the number of security forces. He stated that under Tinubu’s administration, the number of police officers would double, and the armed forces would also be significantly increased.
“The numbers, the equipment, the skills and the training of the armed forces will be scaled up, will be increased rapidly, to meet the asymmetric nature of the security challenges we face," El-Rufai noted.
He underlined that the Tinubu campaign already has “a blueprint which is embedded” in its action plan to tackle the issue. It is expected that military training and equipment would be enhanced as well. Answering questions regarding how the candidate intends to lift Nigerians out of poverty, his allies highlighted that the key to their policy is to ensure sustainable economic growth and enable the private sector to make investments that would contribute to job creation and poverty reduction. Tinubu stated that he aims to double the country’s economy within a decade.Nigeria has long faced serious security threats from terrorist groups in the northern part of the country. Various armed gangs have spread their presence across the region, carrying out kidnappings and killing locals. President Muhammadu Buhari, who won the presidential election in 2015, promised to address increasing insecurity. Even though the country’s military has been intensifying its counter-terrorism operations, the attacks haven’t stopped and still constitute a major security threat.In particular, the continued attacks have raised concerns over voters’ safety during the country’s upcoming presidential, parliamentary, and state elections. Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission has reported at least 50 attacks on its sites over the past two months.
