Though the Nigerian Senate, at the weekend, rejected President Bola Tinubu‘s request to deploy Nigerian troops in Niger Republic to restore democratic rule in the troubled country, military intervention may have come to Nigeria at a heavy cost to warrant a pull back from the avoidable brink.
By global average of cost of war to Gross Domestic Production (GDP) in countries, President Bola Tinubu’s foretold military incursion in Niger Republic will at least double Nigeria’s N2.98 trillion (i.e. 13.4 per cent) committed to defence in 2023 Appropriation Law.
The conservative estimate may even be more, given that countries at war now spend between 23.5 per cent and 59.1 per cent of their GDP on the economics of violence.
Indeed, the upper legislative chamber advised President Tinubu and the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), which he leads, to explore a political solution to the crisis.
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, read the resolution after the lawmakers returned to plenary. Akpabio suggested that the President did not seek the approval of the Senate to go to war in Niger Republic because Mr Tinubu clearly indicated a plan to execute an ECOWAS mandate to deploy troops in Niger should the coupists remain recalcitrant.
With diplomatic curtains drawing to a close, ex-Generals and experts in Nigeria security and intelligence space have also warned the Federal Government to toe the part of pacifism and avoid embarking on proxy war.
Comparatively, Niger’s 26 million population – half of which are Hausa speaking – and its military should seemingly be up for grabs by a Brigade of Nigerian Army.
