Political scientist and national security scholar, Dr. Kunle Fagbemi, has cautioned that Nigeria’s military intervention in Benin Republic following the foiled coup attempt may have been executed without proper due diligence, exposing the country to strategic risks.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE News on Wednesday, Fagbemi questioned whether constitutional and bureaucratic procedures were followed before troops were deployed.
He argued that Section 5 of the Nigerian Constitution requires activation of key security structures such as the National Defence Council, where risk assessments should have been conducted.
“Within the context of the number of hours and minutes during which a decision was taken, and the deployment of troops were done, we will need to ask the Presidents of the Nigerian states to find out if truly these were followed,” he said.
Fagbemi stressed that approvals for such interventions should ideally come through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Intelligence Agency, not directly from the presidency.
He also criticised the authenticity of ECOWAS documents used to justify the intervention, describing them as “just a statement on a paper with the logo of ECOWAS” rather than a signed instrument.
French Geopolitical Influence
The scholar linked regional tensions involving Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—members of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—to alleged geopolitical maneuvers by France.
“It is clear that it may have ended up being a continuation of the oppression that the French have been trying to do to isolate and ensure that the AES states do not have access to a coastal platform,” he warned.
Fagbemi expressed concern over the detention of a Nigerian Air Force aircraft in Burkina Faso, describing it as being manipulated into a “standoff and face‑off.” He questioned whether Nigeria’s intelligence agencies had conducted adequate due diligence.
He urged Nigeria to adopt diplomatic restraint to safeguard its credibility in West Africa: “If we ended up playing into the hands of the people, we need to be very careful.”
The scholar advised that the National Assembly should institute a comprehensive inquiry into the intervention:
“We will have very bitter experiences, and we now need to begin to mitigate against it. The National Assembly must institute a very well completed inquiry to understand the dynamics of the defense.”
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