The House of Representatives has passed the Nigerian Peace Keeping (Support & Participation) Bill, 2018, which seeks to restrict the powers of the President on peacekeeping missions, for second reading.
When the bill is passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by the President, it will become mandatory for the National Assembly to approve Nigeria’s peacekeeping missions in other countries.
According to the house, the Federal Government will also be mandated to outline its peacekeeping activities and the costs, while the National Assembly will appropriate funds for their execution.
A member of the House, Oluwole Oke, who sponsored the bill, noted that since Nigeria’s independence from British colonial rule in 1960, the country has been a frontline state and major contributor to United Nations and non-UN peacekeeping initiatives.
Oke also noted that in 1960, Nigeria deployed the first set of individual police officers in Africa, stressing that that country has reportedly spent over $8bn in peacekeeping missions within the Economic Community of West Africa States, including Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone.
He said the legendary feats of Nigeria’s gallant Armed Forces remain evident in countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone where the country poured in human and material resources to bring peace to those troubled states at that time adding that in 2004, Nigerian troops were deployed to Darfur as a part of the African Union Mission in Sudan. Nigeria also provided 1,200 troops and 200 police officers to Mali in 2004.
