The Government of the United Kingdom has pledged its willingness to continually assist Nigeria in fighting insecurity said the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery.
Montgomery spoke on the defence relations his government shared with Nigeria.
“We have very long-standing defence engagements and many of our high commands, they are organised on similar principles.
“The UK arm services and the Nigeria arms services really understand each other and since the creation of Nigeria, we have had very warm defence relations.
“In the last two, three decades, we have been really conscious of Nigeria as one of the biggest contributors of peace keeping forces, to the role of ECOWAS, as well as the AU.
“The Nigerian Armed Forces has played an important role in mobilising other countries in the region when the international community has asked it to help.”
The high commissioner also said the government was in collaboration with the Nigerian government on the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF).
The MNJTF is a combined multinational formation, mostly military, from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.
It has its headquarters in N’Djamena, Chad and is mandated to bring an end to the Boko Haram insurgency.
“In relation to the present instability and terrorism in the North-East, our main collaboration is with Nigeria as part of the Multinational Joint Task Force.
“That obviously involves the government of Cameroon, and Niger but Nigeria is by far the biggest player, it is by far the biggest arms service.
“We have tried to provide support here possible into that multinational joint task force trying to stabilise the Lake Chad Basin.
“In relation to the bilateral defence engagement, at the moment, we have a British Military adviser in a training team well established in this country for decades.
“It has always tried to evolve its relationship with the Nigerian Armed Forces depending on what the priorities are.”
More so, he said there were two levels of defence collaborations, the strategic and the practical.
He said at the strategic level, there was a security and defence partnership.
“I think it was signed in 2020, the Memorandum of Understanding of that is on our website www.gov.uk
“That explains some of the areas where we have been sharing lessons, sharing information, and where appropriate there have been exchanges of personnel or information or training.
“This is quite a broad umbrella that provides the platform for our various agencies to work together, it is not just the armed forces, it is also serious crime agencies, it is also civilian parts of the architecture.
“In the UK, the National Security Office is civilian, you may have officers posted in; the offices of the security advisers in both our countries try to liaise.
“So, this Security and Defence Partnership (SDP), it is a strategic umbrella, it enlists the areas where we are collaborating.”
Furthermore, Montgomery said the practical level included issues that dealt with Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
“The practical level includes things like sending British trainers to spend time with the Nigerian Army before they are posted to the North-East on issues like how do you deal with an improvised explosive device.
“We have a lot of very unfortunate experiences from Afghanistan and Iraq where we faced campaigns of improvised explosive device and I think this is quite moving practical training.
“This type of training on how to identify IEDs, how to approach IEDs, how to deal with it, saves many infantry people’s lives and that is an example of a practical bit of training.”
The envoy further said the government had other trainings and sharing of lessons on small-scale violent extremist organisations.
He said the experiences of the British Armed Forces would share lessons with the Nigerian Armed Forces on intelligence-led operations.
“We have lessons to share on what you call intelligence-led operations, which I know that the Nigerian Police and the Nigerian Army are doing but we have lessons to share.
“This is when you make sure that military operations within civilian areas are carefully planned and shaped by the information that you have so that you are less likely to negatively affect the civilian population,” he said.
He said it was important for both armed forces to work in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
The high commissioner added that it was part of military professionalism, and a way to share lessons on the challenges of adhering to the rules of engagement and laws.
