President Bola Tinubu has written to the Senate seeking its approval to deploy Nigerian troops to the Republic of Benin for the purpose of peacekeeping in the aftermath of a coup.

The request is conveyed in a letter read during the plenary by the Senate President , Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday.

President Tinubu cited Section 5, Subsection 5, Part 2 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), following consultations with the National Defence Council.

In the letter, the appeal follows an urgent request from the Government of the Republic of Benin for exceptional and immediate air support from the Nigerian Armed Forces.

President Tinubu explains that Benin is currently facing an attempted unconstitutional seizure of power, leading to the disruption and destabilization of its democratic institutions.

He notes that the situation requires swift external intervention.

He emphasizes that, given the close ties of brotherhood between both nations and the principles of collective security under ECOWAS, Nigeria has a duty to provide the necessary support..

The Government of Burkina Faso said a Nigerian Air Force aircraft carrying 11 soldiers was forced to land in the country on Monday after reportedly violating its airspace.

The development was reported by the Agence d’Information du Burkina, the state-run news agency, which published a statement from the Confederation of Sahel States.

The statement, translated from French, read, “The Confederation of Sahel States informs the public that a C130 aircraft belonging to the Air Force of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was forced to land today, December 8, 2025, in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, following an in-flight emergency while operating in Burkinabe airspace.

The military aircraft had two (2) crew members and nine (9) passengers on board, all military personnel.

”The statement added that an investigation by Burkinabe authorities “highlighted the absence of authorisation to fly over the territory of Burkina Faso for this military device.”

The AES condemned the incident as a violation of sovereignty, saying it “condemns with the utmost firmness this violation of its airspace and the sovereignty of its member States.”

The body warned that “air and anti-aircraft defences of the Confederate space put on maximum alert…were authorised to neutralise any aircraft that would violate the Confederate space.”

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo says that Nigerian government needs a combination of training, equipment, intelligence, and technology to end insurgency.

Obasanjo, during an appearance on the ‘Toyin Falola Interviews’ conversation, which was live-streamed on social media, noted that the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria has lasted longer than the country’s civil war that took place between 1967 and 1970.

Obasanjo emphasised that the civil war lasted for 30 months. Although we thought it would last for six months. But this fight against insurgents and criminals has lasted for almost 15 years.

”There is nothing wrong with Nigerian military personnel receiving training in countries that have solved the insurgency challenge,”he added.

Citing his experience with the Niger Delta militancy, he said that he will not rule out the tendency of security personnel colluding with insurgents.

His words: “There are four important items and I hope that those who are in charge — military, executive, and legislature — know what they are doing.

First, there is training. There are different types of training.

The military is trained for conventional war.“If the people you are dealing with are fleeting targets or living among your people, you will need different types of training to deal with them.

“Among the countries that have done that fairly successfully is Colombia. Should we invite them to train our people? There is no shame in that. It is a specialised type of training.“

There is the equipment. The equipment to fight that type of warfare. It differs from equipment for conventional warfare.

The other one is intelligence. You need absolute intelligence. Can others trust us with the intelligence that they have?“The fourth one is technology. These four have to come together and do other things internally.

“Then you ask the military to be the one buying equipment. It is not done. The whole thing is an industry. It is an industry,” he said.