President Bola Tinubu’s plan to create four additional divisions in the Nigerian Army was influenced partly by security concerns that followed the alleged failed coup plot in September 2025, military sources have disclosed.
The expansion will increase the Army’s divisions from eight to 12 and involve the recruitment of about 28,000 additional personnel.
A senior military intelligence officer said security assessments carried out after the alleged coup attempt identified areas of vulnerability that needed to be addressed.
According to the officer, strengthening the military’s manpower and operational capacity would help prevent future attempts to overthrow the government and disrupt Nigeria’s constitutional order.
Another military source said the alleged coup plot had caused concern among senior officers and triggered discussions on how to make any future attempt more difficult.
The source added that modern surveillance and intelligence systems had made military takeovers harder to organise, as they require extensive logistics, weapons, secure communications and coordination among several actors.
However, retired Major General Abidogun Lasisi said the proposed divisions should be created only after the government had identified the Army’s actual operational needs.
He said authorities needed to establish whether the major gaps were in manpower, equipment, intelligence, logistics or the effectiveness of existing formations.
Lasisi also warned that establishing new divisions would require substantial funding because each division would need trained personnel, weapons, armoured vehicles, artillery, engineers, medical facilities, accommodation, communications systems and regular operational funding.
Brigadier General John Sura (retd.) said the expansion could make a military takeover more difficult by decentralising the Army’s command structure.
He added that having more divisions could improve security operations during elections and enable troops to respond more quickly to threats in different parts of the country.
The Presidency, however, dismissed claims that the Army expansion was prompted by fears of another coup or political considerations ahead of the 2027 elections.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, said the move was driven by the changing nature of Nigeria’s security challenges and the need to modernise military structures that were established decades ago.
Ajayi said strengthening the Armed Forces had been one of Tinubu’s campaign commitments, noting that about 50,000 personnel had been recruited across the three services since the President assumed office in 2023.
He said another 28,000 personnel were expected to be recruited under the latest expansion.
According to him, the new divisions would position troops closer to security flashpoints and reduce the time required to respond to emergencies.
The presidential aide also disclosed that three additional military training depots had been established in Kogi, Ebonyi and Osogbo to complement the existing Army Depot in Zaria.
He said each of the new facilities could train between 5,000 and 6,000 recruits at a time, helping to increase the military’s capacity to absorb new personnel.
Ajayi explained that much of the country’s military infrastructure dates back to previous decades and has become inadequate as Nigeria’s population and security challenges have grown.
Nurudeen Adeyemi, a member of the 41 Regular Course Alumni of the Nigerian Army, also rejected the coup theory.
He described the planned creation of the divisions as part of a long-term effort to strengthen the Army and position troops closer to areas facing insurgency, banditry and other security threats.
Security expert Musa Aliyu, however, stressed that funding would be critical to the success of the expansion.
He said the government would need to provide adequate resources for barracks, training facilities, weapons, communications equipment, transport, armoured vehicles, intelligence infrastructure and other operational needs.
