Editorial: Nigeria Sends Troops Abroad While Bleeding at Home

Nigeria has always had a talent for theatrical statecraft; the grand gesture abroad masking the slow collapse at home. But even by its own standards, Nigeria’s decision to deploy troops to the Republic of Benin in the name of “defending democracy” would be laughable if it were not so grotesque. A government that cannot secure Kaduna–Abuja Road, cannot protect farmers in Plateau, cannot stop mass abductions of school children in the North-West, and cannot prevent terrorists from overrunning villages in the North-East now wants to posture as a regional guarantor of stability. It is a tragic irony; and an unforgivable one. This is an act of geopolitical cosplay so brazen that it deserves its own chapter in the annals of national self deception.

 

Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, the Chief of Army Staff, proudly announced that Nigerian troops have been sent to Benin under Operation Atileyin Alaafia 1 and 2 to “restore democracy” and “ensure the peaceful conduct of elections.” Yet the announcement collapses under the weight of a single, stubborn fact: Nigeria cannot secure Nigeria. A state that cannot protect schoolchildren and farmers now proposes to export stability to its neighbors. It is the diplomatic equivalent of a man whose house is on fire, yet he’s instead volunteering to help repaint his neighbor’s kitchen.

 

President Tinubu has long been enamored with the idea of regional leadership; a kind of ECOWAS era nostalgia for the days when Nigeria could afford to throw money, troops, and swagger at West Africa’s problems. But leadership is not a costume one wears abroad. It is a responsibility one demonstrates at home. And at home, the Nigerian state is failing. Nigerians know the truth: the Nigerian state has lost control of large swathes of its own territory. The army that cannot protect schoolchildren in Kuriga or farmers in Mangu is now being exported as a regional peacekeeping force. This is not foreign policy. This is escapism; and a dangerous one. 

 

A government that cannot secure its own people has no business securing anyone else’s. For more than a decade, Nigerians have lived under the shadow of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and communal violence. Entire communities have been displaced. Thousands have been killed. Millions live in fear. Yet the government’s priority is to send troops to Benin to supervise elections. Where is this urgency when Nigerians are being slaughtered in their homes? Where is this “regional commitment” when terrorists sack villages in Zamfara and Katsina? Where is this “collective security architecture” when ISWAP attacks military bases in Borno? The Nigerian government is performing statehood abroad while failing at statehood at home.

 

The Army Chief speaks of technology and intelligence; Nigerians see none of it. General Shaibu talks about “integrating technology,” “real time intelligence,” “degrading adversary capabilities,” and “restoring calm in volatile areas.” But Nigerians see the opposite: terrorists operate freely with drones, kidnappers run multi state networks with impunity; bandits impose taxes on citizens in rural communities, and security agencies arrive hours after attacks, if they arrive at all. If this is what “restoring calm” looks like, then the government has redefined the word beyond recognition.

 

Nigeria cannot be exporting soldiers while importing insecurity. Nigeria’s borders are porous. Its intelligence systems are weak. Its internal security agencies are overstretched and under equipped. Yet the government is sending troops to Benin; a country whose internal crisis poses no direct threat to Nigeria’s survival. Meanwhile, Boko Haram factions remain active; bandits control forests across the North-West; kidnapping syndicates operate in Abuja’s suburbs, and communal violence continues in Plateau, Benue, and Taraba. This is not a country that has earned the luxury of foreign deployments.

 

The deployment to Benin is framed as a noble act of democratic solidarity. But Nigerians have heard this script before. The country has a long history of exporting troops to foreign missions while leaving its own citizens to the mercy of terrorists. The logic is always the same: Nigeria must show leadership; Nigeria must defend democracy; Nigeria must uphold regional stability. But the arithmetic is unforgiving: every soldier sent abroad is one less soldier available to confront the insurgencies metastasizing at home. And the insurgencies are not waiting for Nigeria to finish its foreign adventures. 

 

The deployment to Benin is not about democracy. It is about optics; the illusion of regional leadership. Nigeria wants to look like a stabilizing force in West Africa at a time when ECOWAS is fractured and the Sahel is slipping into military rule. But leadership is not a costume you wear abroad. It is a responsibility you demonstrate at home. A government that cannot protect its own citizens has no moral authority to protect anyone else’s.  

 

If the Nigerian government wants to defend democracy, it should start in Chibok, Birnin Gwari, Mangu, Shiroro, Gwoza, Kuje, Kaura Namoda, and Bwari. These are the places where democracy is dying, not in Cotonou. Until Nigeria secures its own territory, protects its own citizens, and defeats the terrorists within its borders, every foreign deployment is an insult to the people who live under constant threat at home. The government should bring the troops back and face the war it has been losing for far too long; the war for Nigeria’s own survival.

 

If the government wishes to defend democracy, it should begin in Zamfara’s forests, Kaduna’s schools,

Plateau’s farmlands, Borno’s border towns, and Abuja’s satellite communities. These are the frontlines where the Nigerian state is being tested; and too often found wanting. Until Nigeria can secure its own territory, protect its own citizens, and defeat the armed groups that have carved out fiefdoms within its borders, every foreign deployment will look less like leadership and more like escapism. A country that cannot guarantee safety at home has no business guaranteeing it abroad.