The Senate on Tuesday approved President Bola Tinubu’s request to deploy Nigerian troops to Benin Republic to help restore peace and defend democratic institutions threatened by an attempted military takeover in the neighbouring West African country.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the approval after the lawmakers adopted the request through a voice vote at the committee of the whole.
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The request was however, not subjected to debate. Mr Akpabio simply put it to a vote, and the majority supported it before the Senate reverted to plenary.
The approval followed a letter from President Tinubu seeking legislative consent, in line with constitutional requirements. The president is mandated to obtain National Assembly approval within 14 days of deploying troops, according to Section 5(5) of the Nigerian Constitution.
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Despite the request arriving only moments before the vote, Nigerian Air Force personnel had already been deployed to Benin to support efforts to quell the coup attempt, an intervention the presidency said was made at the request of Beninese authorities. The operation is believed to have succeeded, and the coup leader, Tigri Pascal, has since been declared wanted.
Saving Nigeria from refugee spillover
After the vote, Mr Akpabio said the Senate’s decision would help prevent a potential influx of refugees into Nigeria and protect the country’s borders.
“Deploy of the Air Force and Troops to Benin Republic to ensure peace mission and restore order and sanity in that country, thereby saving Nigerians from thousands and thousands of refugees and also saving the Nigerian border from unnecessarily criminality and disruption of peace and stability,” he said.
He also commended President Tinubu for adhering to constitutional provisions by seeking legislative approval and said a letter of consent will be sent to the president immediately.
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“Let me thank the president for complying with the constitutional requirements, requesting the Senate to give him the approval and consent to deploy troops and deploy all necessary elements as requested by the Republic of Benin to ensure peace, stability and to save democracy in that country.
“We believe that the president has taken the right direction. The letter of consent will be sent to the President immediately and we thank him for rising to the occasion because injury to one is injury to all and moreover, the impact this would have had on Nigeria in terms of security of our borders could have been terrible,” he added.
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