An Agusta A109e Power of the Nigerian Navy Air Arm prepares to land on NNS Thunder F90
Two of the Nigerian Navy’s Cat class logistics ships, donated by the USCG
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Beegeagle's Blog 
READ:
Click to access Ministry-of-Defence-Presentation.pdf
That link suggests that the Nigerian Armed Forces are on the cusp of massively expanding their numbers. I welcome that. For a country of 94,000 communities and 170m(by Dec 2012) and in a world where asymmetric warfare has become the mainstay military activity, I believe that the ideal size of the Army should be 115,000 troops in the Army, 17,000 men in the Nigerian Air Force and an 18,000 men in the Nigerian Navy.
Speaking to NTA newsmen at the time when the 660-unit Shehu Yar’Adua Barracks built by NA Engineers was commissioned by GEJ in March 2010, the outgone Chief of Army Staff stated that at the time when he took over command of the Nigerian Army in August 2008, there were 90,000 men in the Nigerian Army, 12,000 men in the Nigerian Navy and 13,000 men in the Nigerian Air Force.
I wonder what ever happened to OBJ’s plan on cutting down the number of service men in the military to 50,000 in his bid to professionalize the army. Anyone still remember that?
I remember that, but that is neither here nor there.
What is the magical correlation between 50,000 troops and professionalism? Most countries with a less than a quarter, a third or half of Nigeria’s population have larger armies – Algeria, Morocco, Burma, Turkey, Iraq, Ethiopia, The Philippines, Iran, Egypt BECAUSE there is correlation between geography, demography and manning. I do not see how the disproportionately large sizes of the Egyptian and Turkish armies have hampered their quest for professionalism.
As of 1988, the defunct Directorate of Foods, Roads and Rural Infrastructure enumerated 94,000 communities in Nigeria. Compared to that and the last time I checked, the DRC had 40,000 communities, Ethiopia 45,000 and the pre-partition Sudan had 35,000 communities.
We face challenges of insurgency in which man have to be put on the ground. NORTHERN NIGERIA is equal in size(slightly larger as a matter of fact) to Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire put together OR FOUR times the size of Liberia and Sierra Leone put together.Half of that huge swathe of territory(equal in size to Germany) has been critically affected by insurgent attacks. There is a critical requirement for BOOTS on the ground since these chaps strike where they sense a vacuum.
It is the same everywhere with COIN-CT operations. In Liberia we had a peak deployment of 13,000 troops, in Sierra Leone it was 19,000 men. That is 32,000 men to man an area the size of Scotland and England combined and there was still a deficit. I just said that Northern Nigeria is four times as large as the combined area of Liberia and Sierra Leone!
The insurgent knuckleheads will attack every undefended church, every isolated police post, every vulnerable church and the COIN-CT operations are beyond what the Police alone can handle insofar as they only field rifles whereas the insurgents have RPGs, GPMGs, are massively IED-reliant and use suicide bombers.
In the deep south, the Niger Delta is a labyrinth of 3014 creeks and waterways with 5,000 miles of pipelines, hundreds of remote flowstations and installations scattered across a daunting maritime area the size of Sierra Leone.
The creeks call for patrols by triads and quartets of troops in river gunboats, the multimillion dollar flowstations need to be protected by squads and sections of troops as well. How many troops are we looking at ideally to effectively man that area where bunkering, piracy, insurgency and kidnapping are not going to quieten down before 2015 at the earliest?
What manner of 50,000 troops was OBJ speculating about? Was that a joke? We need to get started with more than twice that number and with a 2,000-man NAF Regiment(plus 15,000 others) and a 3,000-man Naval Infantry Command (plus 15,000 others)
They should forget the glib talk about ‘compact and professional.’ This is not Israel. our land area is 45 times larger. China have not been in any war since 1978-79 against Vietnam. Their land is ten times larger, their population is eight times bigger but their military is more than twenty times larger. Does anyone know why, if not for the correlation between population size, land area and the need for MANNING?
That an interesting briefing paper. Good to see insurance for troops and accommodation is highlighted, hopefully this will continue.
The presentation mentions increases is that in terms of numbers, formations, combat power or capability. It also mentions increasing the reserve element which is an interesting concept and one that should be followed through. It will give Nigeria increased flexibility if it goes ahead, depending on which model is adopted.
Hopefully this will be expanded upon soon
Beeg, that’s a faultless and very informative exposé on Nigeria and the size of her military. Good work brother.
I think the caption on that first picture ( Augusta 109 landing on a ship) is wrong. The Navy did not acquire the Thunder until 2011. It must have been the Aradu.
Yeah, Uncle Sege(president OBJ) came in, listening too much to the brits & the americans. They are the ones that always wanted us to down size into something “more manageable”.
They even hounded the abacha regime about this issue of downsizing. I was like, are these folks nuts ? How do they think NA can maintain it’s regional stabilization commitments in ecomog.
Moreover, any observant person could foresee the current chaos in nigeria, even during abacha’s early years.
Furthermore, NA’s ecomog experiences revealed the need for a larger better equipped military and not a smaller one.
I eventually began to suspect the motives behind their recommendations.
Anyway, Uncle sege came in with ex general danjuma, and had to clip the wings of the politicized military brass. He rightfully replaced them with general malu and other officers known for their professionalism.
But then he turns around and humiliates them by bringing in MPRI, a US based private military company with experience in croatia & angola. They were given free reign to take stock of NA’s functional equipment, revise NA’s training aides and manuals, and train NA in the finer points of human rights , and serving under civilian rule.
All good stuff, but after almost a decade of ecomog service, general malu was sick and tired of the americans and their shenanigans. You know, I help you one minute, then I humiliate you the next.
As we all know, malu was fired, and danjuma continued with the US/UK demand that NA downsize.
In fact he championed the unpopular cause as his own,threatening to downsize NA to a KDF & ZDF size force of 50,000 troops.
I guess they were all willfully blind to the gathering dark clouds, the fake sharia rebellion in the north, and the unbearable living conditions in the whole country, especially in the oil rich niger delta.
Remember it was the same U.S that wanted Nigeria to go into Somalia WHEREBY the Foreign Minister told the PRESS that no one should hold their breath about us going into Somalia.
Conversley by uncle SEGE not initally paying attention to the Niger Delta at first he laid down the need for the EXPANSION OF THE ARMED forces. Also by him laying down the rule that any senior OFFICER having held political office must be retired ( B.G. BUBA MARAWA) He laid down the paperwork for there to be metriocracy in terms of promotion.Unwittingly or not and I am not PRIVILEGED to any information on this matter so Beegeagle/ XNUR/ DOZIEX/ GBASH/ feel free to chime in or correct, the UPGRADE of the Lagos GARRISON to a DIVISION . Without a whimper from the National Assembly is what has set Nigeria on an inevitable course for EXPANSION.
Much as I criticize UNCLE SEGE for A LOT ( and there is a lot to be angry with him about) there are a lot of things he did in the ARMED FORCES that will have long term consequences for years to come.One of which is to …… form a division
I agree with you jimmy, I was just trying to point out that the downsizing idea came from outside influences. I think the idea ran out of steam, when gen. danjuma(rtd) left for health reasons,and when the shit started to hit the fan in the niger delta.
But in the absence of a true national confab, nigeria would be best served under the wily experienced hands like that of uncle sege.
You know, as IBB said, someone with the ability to steer the ship of state.(of course, one shouldn’t make a big deal out of june 12, billions in missing oil windfall dollars, fake coups, real coups, dele Giwa etc. etc. etc.) (lol)
Anyway, all the strong men are in their 70’s, we are going to have to find a way to pick competent leaders in nigeria.
So, post president GEJ’s second term, my picks are as follows:( a proven record of achievement in a leadership position, is a must)
Senator Chris Anyanwu:
With the only comprehensive beegeagle’s blog approved view on military issues, this lady should be a rising star.( i.e if nigeria was a country that made sense)
Governor Babatunde Fashola:
Nigeria better not let this multi talented, proven leader, go to waste. after his second and last term of lagos state governor.
Any legislator that shows leadership( vocal & actionable) in probing past & present corruption.
Any governor that displays organised, transparent, effective,and empathetic leadership.
Any business person whose success includes job creating ventures(preferably export ventures)
Now is the time for this new generation of nigerians to take our issue of poor leadership seriously.
If we keep using tribal affiliation, religious identity and for sale votes as a criteria for choosing our leaders, we will continue to shortchange our national progress.
Only an insane person does the same things, and expects different results.
These are two EXCELLENT choices AND I would truly struggle to pick one or the other because both have the key ingredient , they both HAVE a sincere love affair for Nigeria
Just for defense purposes I would give the nod to Sen Chris but for overall leadership I would give the nod to GOV Fashola this is hard very hard for a defense oriented guy like me.
Akwa Ibom governor Godswill Akpabio. appears to be doing a great job overall, and particularly in state security. as per a very slick, well put together program, posted on youtube.
Rising star, anybody ??
Another fraudster, please don’t be deceived
On the contrary, the caption it was which was wrong. I said “Ex Obangame 2010”, instead of “Ex Obangame 2012” which held at Calabar during Q1 2012.
That is indeed an Agusta landing on the NNS Thunder(which entered NN service on 23 January, 2012). I had stated previously on this blog at that time, that contrary to what we had felt was the case(remember when we discussed that with Admiral Rastus last December), I actually saw a NTA News video report which showed an Agusta landing on the NNS Thunder.
This is the photo equivalent of that video report.
That helio landing on that warship, one of my favourite scenerio.
Well, it is a nice spectacle anyday. I first witnessed that spectacle as an early teen in the late 1980s when I saw a Lynx helo landing on the NNS Aradu. The NN Air Arm was established around 1985 with the injection of 3 Lynx helicopters.
Hey, you can see that in Kenya live as well. All you need do is GRAB the KNS Jasiri and have a Hughes MD500 helicopter navalised. I doubt that the Jasiri can take anything larger than a Fennec or MD500 on board..certainly not a Harbin Z-9 or Agusta A109..too big. Indeed, until I witnessed this spectacle our Admiral in America – Rufus Rastus and some of us could not quite agree if the Agusta A109e could land on the NNS Thunder. Well, it can.
Going forward, the NN which have signed or imminent orders for two 95 metre 1800 ton OPVs and two 110 metre 2000 ton OPVs might need to throw in orders for matching helos.
We just discovered by chance the fact that NN operate Bell Jet Ranger helicopters as well which would be able to land on the expected new OPVs. They also have a 2012 order for four helicopters of an unspecified brand. I assume that those would be the size of Bell Jet Rangers or the Eurocopter AS-555 Fennec. If they are not, then it means that the NN would be placing separate orders for helicopters for the said OPVs while these ones expected this year and the Bell Jet Ranger helicopters could be deployed to two new naval airbases expected to come onstream before the end of 2013.
What is happening in Kenya today?
Economic sabotage on Kenya by SA, Jonny n Sammy is most imminent from my point of view currently.
Jonny already has boots in Somalia, complicating the current scenerio. Another envr’ntal delegation from Jonny doing some ‘fancy analysis’ on how some huge projects will hav impacts on the environment.
Sammy’s intentions being smelt a mile away by the visiting- Clinton.
Zuma has been investing heavily on its SADC trade partners. He is in the process of helping TZ n Zambia improve the TAZARA transport corridor….to compete with the newly flagged LAPSSET.
All in all, Nairobi is doing her best to make sure that the equation is being balanced damn good.
Some silence from the Somalia theater currently, Kismayo is supposed to fall before Aug 20th, when the TFG term is supposed to end. (Don’t forget abt Azania).
Keep your head up for more updates from this region.
My pleasure.
Well, you guys keep an eye on who gets involved at this late hour lest the entire history of the war be rewritten and the KDF be made to seem like they were porters for you know who..you heard me, buddy. No skanking about that. You ask Doziex for the rest of the story.
Anyway, there is no way that SA will bankroll the rehab of a 1,700 kilometre rail line which she is not going to benefit from. What would they be doing that for – Zambia and Tanzania are not contiguous to SA territory in the same way that landlocked Ethiopia, South Sudan and Uganda border on Kenyan territory? Perhaps there is something you have not told me.
Perhaps that SA fixation on the TAZARA would be with a view to poaching freight bound for Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and eastern DR Congo from the LAPSSET corridor? Right? Wrong?
You got it dang right on the last paragraph. TAZARA wants to snatch the freighties of Uganda, Rwanda, Burudi, Eastern DR Congo which might hav a big impact on LAPSSET.
Some noises abt Kenya in the SADF forums.
hmmm i kno Sa’s never do things without a hidden agenda who nows what they want to transport to escape the prying eyes of key west in this case US whether we try to fne tune it they are our major rivals.
Welcome aboard brother Tope.
A very plausible rejoinder about SA. You are right. They are our main rivals indeed.
Rem: They are Africans by location.
@Tope.
SA has got some Arms industries which produce stuff like MRAPs n also ammunition. The exportation of this things is not under any respected watch n scrunity so far, n the largest mkt for this arms is Southern n central Africa. Some mkts like Kenya are not under any international embargo on arms, contrary to the case in other countries. This countries get arms from SA n by rehabilitating such a corridor like TAZARA, is a strategy well executed, which will favour continued arms trade under the noses of the so called ‘Western eyes’.
Currently the Kenya Navy is having a hard time intoxicating ‘floating armouries’ on the Indian ocean- destined for Somalia.
There you go.
SA ain’t an headache to Nairobi, their politic-economy is very weak, no match to Kenyas. If the current governance has managed to keep Jonny and her cousins at bay, SA isn’t a big problem. I reckon.