Tinubu Calls for Reactivation of Regional Standby Force to Tackle Insecurity in West Africa

President Bola Tinubu has called for the reactivation of a regional standby force to strengthen collective security efforts in West Africa and the Sahel, urging countries in the region to leverage Nigeria’s National Counter Terrorism Centre in Abuja as an intelligence and operations hub.

Tinubu’s position was conveyed in Nigeria’s official statement delivered by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, at the Conference on Security Situation, Operational Challenges and Future Risk Trajectories in West Africa and the Sahel, held in Accra, Ghana, from January 29 to 30, 2026.

According to a statement issued yesterday in Abuja by the Special Assistant on Communications and New Media to the minister, Magnus Eze, the president reaffirmed Nigeria’s unwavering commitment to safeguarding peace, security, and stability in the region, stressing the need for stronger multilateral cooperation to address the worsening security situation in the Sahel.

“Nigeria is favourably disposed to more collaborative and multilateral approaches aimed at dealing with the security crisis in the Sahel,” Tinubu said.

He noted that Nigeria continues to monitor and disrupt terrorist activities through joint efforts with regional and continental institutions, including the Regional Intelligence Fusion Unit, the Liaison Fusion Unit, the Eastern African Fusion Unit, and the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa.

He recalled that in 2025, the NCTC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union to collaborate on counterterrorism and violent extremism across the continent.

“The centre is therefore well positioned to support regional mechanisms and serve as an intelligence coordinating hub in our unified counter-terrorism efforts,” the president added.

Tinubu also warned about the growing use of cyberspace by terrorist groups for misinformation and disinformation campaigns, which he said undermines security and stability in the region.

Following what he described as “momentous gains” by Nigeria in cyber monitoring, surveillance, and intelligence gathering through the National Cyber Security Centre in Abuja, Tinubu urged other West African states to leverage Nigeria’s infrastructure to establish regional mechanisms to counter cyber-enabled threats.

“Security cooperation remains central to Nigeria’s national interest and regional stability. Through joint initiatives, intelligence sharing and coordinated operations, Nigeria seeks to enhance our collective ability to combat terrorism, transnational organised crime and other forms of insecurity that undermine our individual and collective development,” he said.

The president said the security situation in large parts of West Africa remains volatile, with rising casualties of violence, including among women and children. He identified the absence of a single counterterrorism focal point and thinly spread defence formations as key factors creating power vacuums that militant groups have exploited.

“These power vacuums have afforded Sahel-based terrorists the freedom to expand their activities from the central Sahel to littoral West Africa, with Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana among those bearing the brunt,” he said.

He further warned that drug cartels may be relocating operations to weaker jurisdictions in West Africa, amid intensified anti-narcotics campaigns in South America, raising the risk of alliances between traffickers and insurgent groups.

“This development is worrying, as it could bring financially solvent drug cartels into closer proximity with insurgents operating in the region,” Tinubu said.

He noted that such groups could exchange cash for logistics and secure smuggling routes.

The President also highlighted political divisions in the region, including what he described as an emerging ECOWAS–AES divide, overreliance on foreign support, and states’ reluctance to subordinate defence decisions to supranational authorities as major obstacles to effective counterterrorism cooperation.

“To address longstanding and emerging misapprehensions among member states, there is a need to separate political proclivities from security collaborative initiatives, to pave the way for sustainable security partnerships,” he said.

Beyond military responses, Tinubu urged countries to address the root causes of instability, including poverty, governance deficits, marginalisation, and the over-militarisation of counterterrorism strategies.

He called on ECOWAS and AES states to de-escalate tensions and re-establish an all-inclusive framework that reflects shared security and economic interests.

With Soaring Unpaid Annual Dues, UN Faces Imminent Financial Collapse, Guterres Warns

United Nations’ Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres, has told the member-states that the organisation faced “imminent financial collapse” amid unpaid annual dues and other issues.

Guterres, in a letter he sent to UN member-states, called on them to address unpaid dues and overhaul the global body’s financial rules.

“The crisis is deepening, threatening programme delivery and risking financial collapse.

“And the situation will deteriorate further in the near future,” Guterres wrote in the letter addressed to UN ambassadors.

He particularly warned member-states to either agree to overhaul the UN’s financial rules or accept “the very real prospect of the financial collapse of our organisation”.

The UN chief cited two main problems: unpaid dues and a rule now seen as antiquated, under which the global body must credit hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent dues to member states each year.

“In other words, we are trapped in a Kafkaesque cycle expected to give back cash that does not exist,” Guterres said.

Kafkaesque refers to Franz Kafka, whose work explores oppressive bureaucratic processes.

In his letter, Guterres said, “decisions not to honour assessed contributions that finance a significant share of the approved regular budget have now been formally announced.”

“Either all Member States honour their obligations to pay in full and on time – or Member States must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse.”

Under UN rules, the annual dues that UN member-states must pay are set according to each country’s gross domestic product, debt, and other factors.

Under the rules, the United States accounts for 22 per cent of the UN regular budget, which finances the organisation’s day-to-day operations and primary activities.

The US is also responsible for approximately 26 per cent of the UN peacekeeping budget.

However, the US has slashed voluntary funding to UN agencies and refused to make mandatory payments to its regular and peacekeeping budgets.

As at the end of 2025, there was a record $1.57 billion in outstanding dues, Guterres lamented.

Founded in 1945, the UN has 193 member-states and works to maintain international peace and security, promote human rights, foster social and economic development, and coordinate humanitarian aid.

However, US President Donald Trump recently launched a Board of Peace, which some fear could undermine the current global body.

Trump, who described the UN as having “great potential”, however, said the global body was not fulfilling that.

To address the cash crunch, Guterres launched a reform task force in 2025, known as UN80, to cut costs and improve efficiency.

Following the launch of the initiative, states agreed to cut the 2026 budget by around seven per cent to $3.45 billion.

Despite his cost-cutting measures, Guterres warned in the letter that the UN could run out of cash by July.

As of Friday, only 36 of the 193 member states had fully paid their regular 2026 contributions, according to the UN website.