The origin of the Nigerian Armed Forces lies in the elements of the
Royal West African Frontier Force, that became Nigerian when independence was granted in 1960. In 1956, the
Nigeria Regiment of the
Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) was renamed the Nigerian Military Forces, RWAFF, and in April 1958, the colonial government of Nigeria took over from the British
War Office control of the Nigerian Military Forces. Shortly after its formation, the NAF was engaged in combat operations against the secessionist state of
Biafra, during the
Nigerian Civil War from 1967 to 1970. At this point, the Nigerian military ballooned in strength from 85,000 personnel in 1967 to more than 250,000 troops by the war's end. In the years following the civil war, the Nigerian Armed Forces were halved in size from its post-war height to approximately 125,000 men. Despite this contraction in the size and funding of its armed forces, Nigeria would boast the only military in
West Africa capable of engaging in foreign military operations, such as during its intervention in
Liberian civil war in 1990. The great expansion of the military during the civil war further entrenched the existing military hold on Nigerian society, carried over from the first military regime. In doing so, it played an appreciable part in reinforcing the military's nearly first-among-equals status within Nigerian society, and the linked decline in military effectiveness.
Olusegun Obasanjo, who by 1999, had become president, bemoaned the fact in his inaugural address that year: "... Professionalism has been lost... my heart bleeds to see the degradation in the proficiency of the military." Today, the NAF faces a number of domestic challenges which continue to undermine stability within Nigeria and the region as a whole. Some of these threats include the ongoing conflict against the
jihadist rebel group,
Boko Haram in
northeastern Nigeria, which has been in effect since July 2009. Likewise, Nigeria has been engaged in a long-running
anti-piracy campaign in the
Niger Delta, which has threatened the vital
petroleum industry in the country, which is the source of 90% of Nigeria's exports and 35% of the government's revenue. Compounding this state of affairs is the role corruption plays in the ongoing attempts to strengthen the armed forces. Corruption has historically weakened the Nigerian military's capacity to face internal security threats and is cited as being responsible for the continued longevity of rebels and terrorists operating throughout the nation. In spite of these challenges to its operational readiness, the Nigerian Armed Forces have committed to a number of wide-ranging modernization programs to bolster the discipline and firepower of its troops. This includes the acquisition of new armored vehicles, combat aircraft and aerial reconnaissance drones, and the refurbishing of naval vessels, which had suffered from prolonged periods of poor or minimal maintenance. These trends in the development of the armed forces as a fighting force, as well as efforts to combat corruption within the ranks of military personnel and government bureaucracy, have been critically important in the ability of Nigeria to confront challenges to its national security and stability in the wider region of West Africa as a whole. == Structure ==