The graduation of the first batch of 950 Forest Guards under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration is a welcome development in Nigeria’s prolonged struggle against terrorism, banditry and kidnapping. This was a promise the president made as insecurity continued to confront Nigerians despite the best efforts of the Armed Forces. But graduation ceremonies, uniforms and official speeches will not secure the forests. The real test begins when these personnel enter the difficult terrain where criminals hide, plan attacks, abduct citizens and sustain their operations.
The Presidential Forest Guards Initiative was created to monitor forests and other ungoverned spaces, deny terrorists, bandits and kidnappers sanctuaries, protect vulnerable communities and strengthen intelligence-sharing with conventional security agencies. Its official mandates include forest surveillance, early warning, intelligence gathering, patrols, support for rescue operations, protection of biodiversity and natural resources, and assistance to the Armed Forces, Police, Department of State Services, National Park Service and other security agencies.
The guards are also expected to serve as a link between rural communities and the formal security architecture. These are important responsibilities. Yet the government must be realistic about the threat. Criminal groups possess sophisticated weapons, communications equipment, informants and extensive knowledge of difficult terrain. The Forest Guards must therefore receive more than basic firearms training. Their equipment should include reliable communication systems, night-vision devices, body armour, medical kits, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, drones and digital tracking technology.
Where applicable, GPS-enabled devices and secure geospatial platforms should help monitor patrols, identify movement patterns and coordinate rapid response. The emphasis must be on technology, intelligence and effectiveness—not uniforms. Criminals can also wear uniforms to deceive communities, infiltrate operations or impersonate security personnel. Every guard must be properly identified, digitally registered and subject to verifiable command and accountability systems.
The corps must also expand substantially. The guards should be posted, as far as practicable, to their states, local governments and communities of origin, where their knowledge of terrain, languages and communities can improve intelligence. A guard is likely to feel more motivated when protecting his local community than faraway territories. But local familiarity must be balanced with professional discipline and safeguards against collusion.
Beyond the official mandates, the guards should pay particular attention to schools, isolated settlements and the support networks sustaining criminal enterprises. Informants, suppliers, transporters, financiers and collaborators must be identified through careful intelligence operations, and their networks dismantled. The Forest Guards can become more effective than existing forces in narrow, specialised roles because they are locally rooted, continuously present and focused on terrain that conventional agencies cannot adequately cover.
Their success, however, depends on clear command, proper funding, inter-agency coordination, human-rights compliance and measurable results. The government must judge them not by the number graduated, but by forests reclaimed, schools protected, intelligence generated and criminal networks dismantled.
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