Nigeria calls for reactivation of regional standby force
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria has called for the reactivation of the regional standby force that would leverage the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) in Abuja, which serves as an intelligence and kinetic fusion unit. This was contained in Nigeria’s official statement delivered on his behalf by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, […]
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria has called for the reactivation of the regional standby force that would leverage the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) in Abuja, which serves as an intelligence and kinetic fusion unit.
This was contained in Nigeria’s official statement delivered on his behalf by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, at the conference of security situation, operational challenges and future risk trajectories in West Africa and the Sahel, held in Accra, Ghana, January 29-30, 2026.
According to him, Nigeria has continued to monitor and disrupt latent terrorist operations in the region through various distinct and collaborative efforts with regional institutional structures such as the Regional and Intelligence Fusion Unit (RIFU), Liaison Fusion Unit (UFL), Eastern African Fusion Unit, and Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA), among others.
The NCTC had in 2025 signed an MoU with the African Union (AU) on collaborative counterterrorism efforts to combat terrorism and violent extremism across Africa.
President Tinubu said, “Security cooperation remains central to Nigeria’s national interest and regional stability. Through joint initiatives, intelligence sharing, and coordinated operations, Nigeria seeks to enhance our collective ability to combat terrorism, transnational organised crimes and other forms of insecurity that undermine our individual and collective development.
“We recognise that the security situation in large parts of West Africa remains volatile, as the number of victims and casualties of violence, including women and children, continues to rise.
“We also recognise that central to this turmoil is the lack of a single counter terrorism focal point, as well as thinly spread defence formations from border environs to urban areas developments that have resulted in power vacuums outside State capitals, which militant groups have increasingly exploited.
“These power vacuums have afforded Sahel-based terrorists the freedom to expand their activities from central Sahel to littoral West Africa, with Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana, among others, bearing the brunt.
“Coming amidst the United States (US) government’s intensified anti-narcotics campaign in South America, there are concerns that drug cartels may have already begun relocating their operations to weaker jurisdictions in West Africa, where enforcement capacity appears to be lower,” he said.
Tinubu, therefore, called on ECOWAS and the AES states to find ways to de-escalate tensions and re-establish an all-inclusive framework that reflects shared security and economic interests.