Analysing Nigeria-Türkiye Defence Partnership

The Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (Rtd.), recently attended the Antalya Diplomacy Forum 2026 in Türkiye, which was themed “Mapping Tomorrow, Managing Uncertainties.” A key highlight of this strategic meeting was the signing of a new defence pact that will see 200 Nigerian military personnel travel to Türkiye for advanced training in asymmetric warfare operations. This is a welcome development, given that Türkiye has a history of combating insurgency for nearly 40 years.

This newspaper recognises that the defence pact between Nigeria and Türkiye offers significant benefits to Nigeria in the fight against insurgency and other non-state actors. According to defence sources, the training programme is specialised and structured in phases. The first phase requires military personnel from Nigeria to travel to Türkiye, and vice versa. Such defence collaborations are not unique to Nigeria; it is a standard practice in global defence diplomacy. For example, the United Kingdom maintains a Long-Term Training Team (LTTT) in Nigeria and frequently exchanges personnel for courses on counter-IED (Improvised Explosive Device) operations.

We also recognise that since the advent of the Boko Haram insurgency, Türkiye has supplied several units of its Bayraktar TB2 Drones to address banditry in the North-West, along with T129 Attack Helicopters for Nigerian Air Force operations in the North-East. Notably, during his state visit to Ankara in January 2026, President Bola Tinubu signed a comprehensive Defence Cooperation Framework that includes training and technology transfer to improve national defence capabilities.

It remains a welcome development that 200 personnel of the Nigerian military are about to embark on a trip to Türkiye for advanced training in counter-insurgency operations, which, from all indications, is a subset of the broader Defence Cooperation Framework agreed by both countries. This newspaper recognises the anxiety of Nigerians with regard to the efforts of the military in addressing the security challenges in the country. However, it must be noted that ours is a country that is dependent on external sources for its defence needs, and Türkiye has a good history in counterinsurgency operations.

To put issues in proper perspective, Türkiye has proven to be a dependable ally of Nigeria in the critical defence sector. Türkiye is also ranked 8th out of 145 countries in terms of conventional military strength. It is also regarded as one of the countries in the world whose counter-insurgency operations were regarded as operationally successful. As of March 2026, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) ranks Türkiye as the 11th largest arms exporter in the world. These facts indeed support the fact that the Defence Cooperation Framework signed by President Bola Tinubu in January 2026 does not just represent a historic moment, but a critical effort towards improving the lot of the military in addressing the challenges posed by insurgent groups in the country.

The training of 200 personnel of the Nigerian military in Türkiye on counterinsurgency operations is a landmark effort in the fight against insurgency in Nigeria. As a country, we must form the habit of living in our reality that we indeed need help from external sources in the fight against insurgency and banditry, and it is in the reckoning of this newspaper that the pact with Türkiye holds some prospects if implemented under the agreed mutually acceptable terms and conditions.

There is no doubt that Nigeria and Türkiye have had a longstanding bilateral relationship for decades. Available information indicates that the trade relations between the two countries stood at $2 billion to $2.5 billion in 2025. The presence of Turkish investments in the country in some critical sectors, such as health and education, is also impressive. The implication is that Nigeria and Türkiye have enjoyed a good relationship over the years, and this new defence pact holds the potential to be timely and beneficial in the fight against insurgency and other non-state actors.

Our advocacy as a newspaper is that the defence ministry must recognise that Nigerians deserve to be clearly informed about the defence pacts and their prospects for the country to prevent the vacuum of speculation from being exploited by mischief-makers. This is on the heels of some misconceptions, especially in the social media space, about the provisions of the defence pact that suggests the setting up of a Turkish Military base in Nigeria. This much has been dismissed by defence sources andit is the stand of this newspaper that the defence pact between Nigeria and Türkiye holds prospects towards addressing the security challenges in the country. However, the defence ministry must improve its communication strategy by ensuring that issues of such nature are not allowed to be misinterpreted.