A former Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army, Maj-Gen Pat Akem-Vingir (retd), has stated that the Nigerian military requires at least 500,000 personnel to effectively combat terror groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
“Our army is small. We need to have an army of at least 500,000 personnel,” the retired general emphasized during the Friday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political program aired on Channels Television.
According to Global Fire Power, the Nigerian military currently has around 230,000 personnel, far fewer than what Maj-Gen Akem-Vingir believes is necessary to address the growing security challenges in the country. He pointed out that many of the military’s achievements in the fight against insurgency in the North-East have been undone due to the lack of manpower to maintain control over the cleared territories.
“When you are fighting insurgency, you must capture ground and hold it,” he explained. “It takes troops to do that. When you capture ground, then you build and hold so that people can resume their lives and there will be security. But if you are clearing areas and you are not holding, then the terrorists will return.”
The retired general also dismissed the significance of the recently formed terror group, Lakurawa, which is reportedly operating in the North-West. He described them as a “small, tiny group” merely seeking attention. “We shouldn’t recognize them, we shouldn’t even discuss them, because they will think they are being noticed now and want to do more,” he said.
Maj-Gen Akem-Vingir urged the government to provide the military with adequate equipment, training, and full authority to neutralize threats to national security, stressing that without security, governance cannot take place. He called for the president to publicly give clear directives to security agencies, ensuring swift action to address the nation’s security challenges.