US may be planning military base in Nigeria, says EX-COAS Dambazau

Former Chief of Army Staff and ex-Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. AbdulRahman Dambazau (retd.), has said that the United States may be preparing to set up a military base in Nigeria.

Speaking in Abuja at the 7th Annual Lecture of the Just Friends Club of Nigeria, Dambazau said recent comments by some US politicians and religious leaders about alleged persecution of Christians in Nigeria could be part of a larger plan by foreign powers to push their interests.

He noted that the US had operated two military bases in Niger Republic for over ten years but failed to stop insecurity there.

“In the more than ten years of US presence in Niger, where it maintained two military bases, what did the US do to prevent the growth of security challenges?” he asked.

Dambazau added that the US is a country known for protecting only its interests, even if it means using force, and warned that some Nigerians might be helping to advance these external agendas.

He said Nigeria’s insecurity, including terrorism and insurgency, is part of wider regional instability across the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin and is not directed at any single religion.

Both Muslims and Christians, he said, have been victims of attacks, citing killings of worshippers in mosques, assassinations of clerics, and attacks on traditional rulers.

The retired general urged Nigerians to unite in confronting terrorism and criminal violence instead of allowing foreign interests to exploit divisions in the country.

US may be planning military base in Nigeria, says EX-COAS Dambazau