US AFRICOM commander visits Tinubu

The Commander of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), Dagvin Anderson, on Sunday, 8 February, led a US delegation on a courtesy visit to President Bola Tinubu in Abuja.

PREMIUM TIMES understands that the visit is part of ongoing engagements between Nigeria and the United States on security cooperation. This newspaper reported that AFRICOM said the United States has deployed a small team of soldiers to Nigeria, a development that sparked public outrage prompting the Defence Headquarters to clarify Nigeria’s relationship with the deployed troops.

According to captioned images posted on X by presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, the delegation included the Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Nigeria, Keith Heffern; Senior Foreign Policy Adviser, AFRICOM, Peter Vrooman; and the Command Sergeant Major and Command Senior Enlisted Leader of AFRICOM, Garric Banfield.

The visit also brought together Nigeria’s top security and intelligence leadership.

Those present at the meeting included the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa; Chief of Defence Staff, Olufemi Oluyede; Chief of Army Staff, Waidi Shaibu; Chief of Defence Intelligence, Emmanuel Uandiandeye; Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Mohammed Mohammed; and the Director-General of the State Security Services (SSS), Tosin Ajayi.

The engagement comes amid ongoing diplomatic and security interactions between Nigeria and the United States focused on security cooperation, intelligence coordination and strategic engagement through established bilateral frameworks.

No official details of the discussions were disclosed in the captions accompanying the photographs.

The engagement stemmed from diplomatic tensions that followed the redesignation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern by US President Donald Trump who falsely claimed that Christian genocide was ongoing in Nigeria and that the government was abetting it.

After that redesignation, Mr Trump threatened military action in Nigeria if the government doesn’t take action against terrorists he said were mainly killing Christians.

Amid the tension, the Nigerian government disputed Mr Trump’s claims, saying Nigerians of all faith were being targeted, a position that the US president agreed with after he ordered military airstrikes on “Islamic State camps” in the North-west where the presence of the group is still being debated.

Since the December airstrikes, delegates from both countries have been meeting in an effort to strengthen bilateral cooperation against growing insecurity in the West African country.