Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has proposed creating a new security force to protect the waters off West Africa’s coast, known as the Gulf of Guinea. He wants Lagos, Nigeria’s most populated city and economic centre, to be its headquarters.
During an African Union (AU) meeting in Ethiopia, Yusuf Tuggar, the minister of foreign affairs who represented Tinubu, said “The time has come for the African Union Peace and Security Council to prioritise the creation of a combined maritime task force for the Gulf of Guinea. I wish to announce that Nigeria would like to host the headquarters of the task force in Lagos.”
Additionally, Nigeria strengthened its role in African security on the same day by signing an important agreement with the AU. The agreement commits the Nigerian Navy to provide ships for peace operations, natural disaster response, humanitarian aid, and personnel transportation, with the AU covering the costs.
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Subsequently, Nigeria’s Defence Minister Badaru Abubakar and AU Commissioner Bankole Adeoye formalised this agreement with their signatures.
Welcoming plans to expand Nigeria’s counter-terrorism centre into a regional hub, Tinubu highlighted growing security concerns across the Sahel – the vast region south of the Sahara Desert. He linked many of these challenges to the continuing turmoil in Libya.
Tinubu suggested leveraging a recent UN Security Council resolution to bolster AU peacekeeping efforts, noting: “It would not be out of place to explore the possibility of extending the inherent benefits of UN Security Council resolution 2719 to support AU peace support operations.” He also stressed the importance of limiting the involvement of non-African military forces, including private military companies, in the continent’s security matters.
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