…As critics call it a ‘risky gamble’
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the establishment of the Forest Guards of Nigeria, a new security outfit tasked with reclaiming the country’s 1,129 forests from terrorists, bandits, and other criminal elements.
Announced by Presidential Adviser on Media, Sunday Dare, the initiative will be jointly implemented by the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Ministry of Environment, with immediate recruitment of personnel. The guards will be trained and armed to flush out criminals hiding in forests, while also creating thousands of jobs for young Nigerians.
Tinubu, reiterating his vow not to “surrender an inch of Nigeria’s territory”, said the move was part of a broader strategy to dismantle criminal safe havens and secure rural communities.
However, the plan has sparked sharp debate. Writing in an opinion article, security analyst, Otunba Dare Adelekan described the initiative as a “misguided gamble”, arguing it risks the lives of young Nigerians without addressing the root causes of insecurity.
“If the Nigerian Army, with decades of experience, superior firepower, and billions in funding, has struggled to defeat insurgents, how realistic is it to expect lightly armed forest guards to succeed?” Adelekan queried.
He warned that the country’s problem is not manpower, but corruption, mismanagement, and weak intelligence-sharing among existing security agencies. “Until these structural problems are fixed, every new force will only become another drainpipe for funds”, he said, calling instead for investment in drones, satellite monitoring, welfare for soldiers and police, and stronger political will to fight corruption.
Critics also point to the dangers of sending poorly trained recruits into heavily armed conflict zones, where insurgents and bandits exploit institutional weaknesses. Adelekan stressed that resources earmarked for forest guards would be better spent on economic empowerment, education, and agriculture, arguing that “a hungry, unemployed youth is easier to recruit into crime than into patriotism”.
While the Government hails the Forest Guards as a bold step toward securing Nigeria’s hinterlands, opponents see it as another cosmetic gesture in a long line of security experiments. The coming months will reveal whether the new force becomes a turning point in Nigeria’s fight against insecurity – or just another weak link in its overstretched security chain.
