Date:
Location:
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"Nigeria's Overstretched Military: Priorities for Improving the Military's Capability to Tackle the Country's Security Challenges"
Speaker:
Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, Former Chief of Army Staff, Nigerian Army; Nigeria's former Interior Minister.
Contacts:
Jacob Olupona
Olupona@fas.harvard.edu
Darren Kew
Darren.kew@umb.edu
Co-sponsored by UMass Boston's Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development (CPDD).
This event is online only. Please click the "Read More" link for full instructions on how to attend this seminar.
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Abstract:
The Nigerian military has been involved in operations in all of the thirty-six states, including counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations in the northeast. The military’s capability in tackling insecurity is now overstretched by anti-banditry and anti-kidnapping operations, particularly in the northwest, ethno-religious and herder-farmer conflicts in the north central, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and militancy in the Niger Delta, and more recently, violent ethnic extremism in the southeast and southwest, involving IPOB and the Yoruba Nation secessionist and/or separatist groups. International and regional commitments also stress the armed forces, such as peacekeeping operations at the UN level, the AU Standby force, and the Multi-National Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad Basin. Because the Nigerian police and other law enforcement agencies are unable to handle their primary responsibilities, the military is typically called upon to intervene, even though it is too underfunded to have the required manpower and equipment for these additional responsibilities. This has spread the military’s resources too thin and has also made it vulnerable to accusations of human rights abuses. General Dambazau will discuss the impacts of Nigeria’s overstretched military and recommend ways to prioritize improving the military’s capability in tackling the country’s security challenges in a more efficient manner.
Speaker Bio:
Abdulrahman Dambazau, a retired Lieutenant General, former Chief of Army Staff, Nigerian Army, and former Minister of Interior, Nigeria, holds BSc Criminal Justice (1982) from Kent State University, Ohio, USA and PhD in Criminology (1989) from the University of Keele, UK. He is a Fellow (2012-2013) and Associate (2013-2014) of Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University; a Senior Fellow (2011-date), Center for Peace, Democracy and Development, University of Massachusetts, Boston; and Co-Chair, Board of African Peace Forum, California State University, Sacramento. He has authored three books, co-authored one, and contributed book chapters, and among which are Law and Criminality in Nigeria (University Press, 1994); and Criminology and Criminal Justice (Spectrum Books, 2004). Abdulrahman is the Founder and Chairman, Board of Trustees, Foundation for Victims of Child Abuse. He is currently the Pro-Chancellor of Capital City University, a privately owned tertiary institution located in Kano, Nigeria. General Dambazau’s research focus is on African Regional Security with emphasis on Transnational Crimes.
