Nigeria scraps army cutback

Soldiers have been deployed to calm ethnic fighting

By Barnaby Phillips in Lagos

The Nigerian Government says it has decided not to significantly reduce the size of the country's armed forces, contrary to plans announced last year.

In an interview with the Lagos Guardian newspaper, the Defence Minister, Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma, said his initial plans to reduce the army from about 80,000 to 50,000 soldiers were wrong.

Shortly after the government came to office last year, General Danjuma said large cuts were necessary to make the army more professional.

Police have failed to quell frequent violence

But senior soldiers were obviously unhappy with the idea and there was never any sign that the cuts were about to be implemented.

Now it seems that General Danjuma has changed his mind.

He told the Guardian that Nigeria could keep its armed forces at their present size without damaging social and economic objectives.

Army's role

But General Danjuma's mind has also been concentrated by the many commitments the Nigerian army has had over the past year.

The army has helped restore law and order on several occasions during internal ethnic and religious upheavals when the police were not able to cope.

It guards a disputed border with neighbouring Cameroon, where there have been sporadic clashes.

And there are also several thousand Nigerian soldiers serving as peacekeepers in Sierra Leone.