Nigeria’s Misplaced Priorities: Why Deploying Troops to Benin Republic Instead of the North Underscores a Dangerous Security Blindspot
By Ifeanyi Obinali

As the dust settles from last weekend’s failed coup in Benin Republic, and the Nigerian Senate’s recent approval of troops deployment to assist the Beninese government, many Nigerians are asking: Was this really the right call — especially given the worsening security disaster back home?
On December 7, 2025, the government of Benin requested military intervention after mutinying soldiers attempted to overthrow their president. Responding swiftly, President Bola Tinubu ordered the mobilization of Nigerian fighter jets and ground troops to help restore constitutional order in the neighboring country. Reports say the intervention succeeded: airstrikes and ground forces helped quash the coup attempt. This indeed is a bold gesture to a neighbor, but at what domestic cost?
In the eyes of many observers including Nigeria’s leaders, this demonstrates solidarity with a neighbor and reaffirms Nigeria’s role as a stabilizer in the region. President Tinubu framed the move as an affirmation of shared democratic values under ECOWAS. But for many Nigerians who face daily threats from kidnappings, banditry and village massacres, the spectacle of foreign intervention feels dangerously disconnected from the urgent reality of life in the country, especially Nigeria’s north.

The northern crisis is now more than a security challenge but a humanitarian disaster. Over the last decade, large parts of northern Nigeria especially the northwest and north-central zones have been ravaged by violence: kidnappings, bandit raids, mass abductions of schoolchildren, attacks on villages and farms, and deadly raids on houses of worship.

Today, killings, kidnappings, and violent raids by so-called bandit gangs” are everyday realities of citizens in Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina and Niger. It is a shame and sad to note that 15 years after Chibok, we are still dealing with the same challenges that led to school students in Kebbi and Niger facing the same inhumane situation that they will never recover from. The worst part remains that the posture of the government still does not prove its readiness to deal with this issue decisively. How can someone order the removal of military officers and security men protecting the school in Kebbi mere hours before the bandits attacked, killed the principal and kidnapped the students, yet Nigerians still do not officially know the name of that specific individual who gave the order of removal, and worst still that person is not in custody yet – a stark manifestation of how entrenched in the system the insecurity has become, especially because it’s unusual for military movements to occur without clear authorization, especially in high-risk areas.

These attacks do more than just endanger lives: they destroy communities, displace families, force farmers off their land, and worsen poverty and hunger, a reality already highlighted in recent food-insecurity projections.

As with every sovereign nation, the government’s number one responsibility is to ensure security and the protection of the lives of every citizen. When the government commits troops abroad, especially in a reactive operation, it sends a message about what it sees as its priorities. Deploying personnel to Benin may shore up regional influence, but it comes at a cost: the very real and growing insecurity at home and the millions of naira that could have been invested in the fight against insecurity.
Given the scale of terror, banditry, and kidnapping in the north, diverting troops and military assets to another country is a miscalculation. Just the way our troops were guns-blazing to Cotonou, they could have done the same in response to the insecurity in the north, at a time when many citizens believed they most needed protection.
What message does this send to a family in, say, Katsina or Zamfara, whose village was raided last week, whose children were snatched, whose farm is burning when military jets are flying to foreign capitals instead of guarding their schools or farmland?

Beyond optics, our government’s focus should be internal, because the human cost of insecurity in the country is huge and rapidly rising. The numbers of attacks, abductions, and killings in the north have soared over the last decade. For thousands of families, insecurity is no longer abstract, but a daily terror. Citizens expect their government to guard their safety, safeguard their children’s education, and protect their land. When security appears selectively deployed abroad while domestic threats rage, public trust erodes.

There is no doubt that regional instability threatens all West African nations, and that solidarity among neighbors is sometimes necessary. But for a country still grappling with rampant kidnappings, banditry, and deadly attacks across its own territory inside which lives, livelihoods, and futures hang in the balance, stability at home must come first.

Nigerians cannot continue to remain vulnerable, their lands insecure, and their families unprotected, while foreign capitals enjoy the protection of Nigerian jets and troops. The government must before any foreign adventures, deploy the full force of its security apparatus to where it is most needed: at home in the Northeast, Northwest and North Central in particular, and Nigeria in general.