Military Cooperation between Nigeria and The Gambia: Strategic Factor for Regional Security 1. Geo-strategic importance of The Gambia

Gambia represents a region of geo-strategic importance for Nigeria in the fight against the Boko Haram (Touray, 2015) as well as in maintaining influence in West Africa. Nigerians currently represent the largest population of foreign nationals in Gambia (Punch, 2018) and to keep political peace in the region (Blomfield, 2017). The hesitation of Yahya Jammeh to hand over power to the duly elected Adama Barrow was a signal to the other West African states that Gambian politics might undermine the ECOWAS and create problems for them. Nigeria quickly pledged to send military forces to ensure that the democratically elected Barrow was inaugurated.

The Gambia is viewed as rich in mineral resources and as an important waterway, and Nigeria would like to strengthen trade relations with The Gambia for this reason. As The Standard (2018) points out: “The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to facilitate and deepen economic ties in both countries.” This MOU is meant to serve as the ground floor of a relationship that will “encourage, promote and facilitate trade cooperation among the business communities of both countries” (The Standard, 2018).

However, The Gambia is also 90% Islamic, and with the radical Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram currently considered a primary threat among West African states, the possibility of a nest of Islamic terrorism burgeoning in The Gambia is a palpable one that states like Nigeria want to address. That is one reason Nigeria was adamant about seeing Barrow assume his position as Gambia’s rightful leader. In order to face the Islamic threat represented by Boko Haram, Nigeria needs to know that the threat is contained and that a spigot of terrorism is not opened in Gambia, which is supported financially by several Islamic states in the Middle East (Hadebe, 2017), so as to flow over the whole of West Africa.

2. Overview of the Military Cooperation Between Nigeria and The Gambia in Handling Security Challenges

The Nigerian High Commissioner to The Gambia, Esther John Adu, stated that “in support of the Gambia government’s development efforts, the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has continued to post Technical Aid Corps Volunteers (TAC) to The Gambia” (Cham, 2013). Nigeria’s support for The Gambia, according to Adu, “is informed by our conviction and belief in the development of The Gambia and the well-being of its people” (Cham, 2013). By helping to develop Gambia, Nigeria aims to stabilize the whole of West Africa. However, security challenges exist, which is why Nigeria has recently been deeply involved in overseeing The Gambia’s military operations.

In 2017, the armoury of The Gambian Armed Forces was “completely taken over by troops of the Nigerian Army for security reasons” (Kilete, 2017). The heads of ECOWAS used the Army to help stabilize The Gambia following Barrow’s election. The security challenges that remain in The Gambia have to do with ensuring that the state does not attempt a coup to oust the elected Barrow. As Dwyer (2017) notes, the military of The Gambia has had different roles depending on the leader in charge of the state. Dwyer (2017) states that there were “vastly different roles the military played in the state under President Jawara (1965–94) and President Jammeh (1994–2017)” (p. 362). To ensure a smooth transition in governance, therefore, it is necessary that the Nigerian military work with The Gambian state to ensure that no coups are conducted that would potentially upset the ECOWAS. As Jammeh took power in The Gambia following a military coup in 1994, the presence of the Nigerian military in The Gambia today follows the maxim, “an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure”—i.e., it is better to be safe than sorry. With the whole of West Africa tied up via the ECOWAS in The Gambia’s future, Nigerian cooperation, militarily speaking, is viewed as a must among ECOWAS states to ensure The Gambia’s development (Hartmann, 2017).

3. Evaluation of Military Cooperation between Nigeria and Gambia Analyzing the Military, Economic and Political Relations

As Hartmann (2017) points out, military, economic and political relations are intimately united in The Gambia, particularly because of its role in ECOWAS. Since 2016, The Gambia has received even more attention: “Following the disputed December 2016 presidential elections in The Gambia, ECOWAS managed to ‘restore democracy’ in the country by using the threat of force,...

85). The regime operating under Jammeh refused to hand over authority to the newly elected Barrow. Only because the threat of force became real did Barrow finally get to assume control of the state.
Hartmann (2017) describes the success of this tightening of military, economic and political relations between The Gambia and Nigeria (which represented the bulk of the military force aimed at Jammeh) in terms of four conditions:

1) ECOWAS had a clear legal mandate to threaten the use of force in order to protect democracy in one of its member states;

2) there was consensus that ECOWAS forces could have coped with the relatively small Gambian army;

3) the Gambian president could not rely on friends among his regional peers or some powerful ally from outside Africa;

4) and regional leaders such as Nigeria and Senegal made a credible commitment to the regional intervention (Hartmann, 2017, p. 85).

These factors help to explain how military, economy and politics intertwine in the relationship between Gambia and Nigeria. The greater West African peace demanded that Gambia be stabilized—and only Nigeria could provide that stability with any degree of certainty.

It was also crucial to the ECOWAS that a peaceful transition of power be effected in The Gambia. It initially looked like this would be the case when Jammeh congratulated Barrow on winning the election, indicating that he would peacefully step aside and return to his farm. However, when Jammeh stepped up rhetoric about the election being fraudulent and a new being needed, the ECOWAS states began working together to address the issue and ensure that no adverse economic or political outcome impacted them by way of turmoil in Gambia. As Hartmann (2017) notes, ECOWAS chiefs “gathered on 14 January in Abuja to discuss the preparations for the establishment of the ECOWAS Military Intervention in The Gambia (ECOMIG). On 18 January, troops (most from Senegal, with contingents from Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, and Togo) started to move towards the border with The Gambia (which is surrounded by Senegalese territory), and together with Nigerian forces also implemented a naval blockade” (p. 89). The ensuing peaceful handover of the state to Barrow was largely thanks to this swift military action on the parts of the ECOWAS, with Nigeria playing a commanding role in ensuring that The Gambia was completely isolated from any allies that Jammeh might like to call upon to assist him in his illegal usurpation of the office of President.

4. Evaluation of the Implications for Nigeria

Thanks to the continuous presence of the Nigerian military in The Gambia, the region has been somewhat more stabilized. Vanguard (2018) reports that “the NAF was the first to deploy to The Gambia in January 2017 as part of the standby force tasked by ECOWAS Heads of State to enforce the December 1, 2016 election mandate, which restored Adama Barrow as President.” The NAF currently is rotating its forces in a continued effort to provide stability to the state in cooperation with The Gambian leaders. The effect of this continued military support and collaboration between The Gambia and the NAF is that economic peace and prosperity have become more likely to be achieved. This means that one of the major implications for Nigeria is that it and ECOWAS will benefit from the support shown to The Gambia and to Barrow and the democratic process in particularly.

Omosebi (2018) notes that this continued military support has been instrumental in facilitating the strengthening of political and economic ties between the two nations, ties that have resulted in “a Memorandum of Understanding to encourage, promote and facilitate trade cooperation among the business communities of both countries. Nigeria, through the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) signed the MoU to facilitate and deepen economic ties in both countries.”

The ACCI agreement will be good for The Gambia as well as for Nigeria. The Independent (2018) finds that “under the agreement, it is expected that both countries would coordinate their activities in order to:

· establish and expand a trade network,

· facilitate business opportunities,

· collaborate in logistics matters,

· assist each other in organising or participating in trade fairs, exhibitions, conferences, seminars and other similar activities in particularly in areas like tourism, education, oil and gas, construction, agriculture, and technology sectors.”

By allowing the Gambia and Nigeria to build their relationships over the support of democracy,…