President Bola Tinubu on Thursday approved a major restructuring of the Nigerian Army, expanding its formations from eight to 12 divisions.
Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President Bayo Onanuga in a statement said Tinubu also authorized the recruitment of 28,000 personnel as part of a broader drive to bolster the country’s capacity to confront mounting security threats.
The decision distributes new division headquarters across the country—including Makurdi, Ilorin, Jalingo and Benin City—and is intended to improve command-and-control, decentralize operational decision-making and speed military responses to insurgency, banditry and other internal-security challenges.
Onanuga said, under the new order the Army will operate the following divisional headquarters: 1 Division in Kaduna (covering Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Jigawa); 2 Division in Ibadan (Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo); 3 Division in Jos (Plateau, Bauchi and Gombe); 5 Division in Makurdi (Benue, Nasarawa and Kogi); 6 Division in Port Harcourt (Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River); 7 Division in Maiduguri (Borno and Yobe); 8 Division in Sokoto (Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara); 9 Division in Ilorin (Kwara and Niger); 10 Division in Jalingo (Taraba and Adamawa); 81 Division in Lagos (Lagos and Ogun); 82 Division in Enugu (Enugu, Anambra, Abia, Ebonyi and Imo); and 83 Division in Benin City (Edo, Delta and Bayelsa).
The statement said the restructuring builds on recent investments in personnel, equipment and troop welfare. Implementation will occur in two phases: establishment of the 5th, 9th and 10th Divisions and reorganization of existing formations by September 2026, followed by creation of the 83rd Division and further reorganization by December 2026.
President Tinubu praised the Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Waidi Ibrahim Shuaibu and Army personnel for their “dedication, professionalism and steadfast commitment” to defending Nigeria’s territory, the statement said.
The President also pledged continued investment to keep the armed forces “adequately equipped, highly motivated and fully capable” of protecting citizens.
NewsQuest reports that the approval of President Tinubu comes amid persistent security challenges across large swaths of Nigeria, where insurgency in the northeast, separatist tensions in the southeast and escalating communal and criminal violence in the northwest and central regions have strained federal and state security responses.
our correspondent gathered that the Nigerian Army has expanded its divisions over time to better cover different regions and respond to security threats.
In 2013, the Army established the 7th Infantry Division in Maiduguri to support counter-insurgency operations in the northeast, while in 2016, the Army announced its 8th Division in northern Borno.
