President Bola Tinubu has approved the establishment of National Forest Guards to reclaim Nigeria’s forests from criminal elements and enhancing environmental security across the country.
The initiative, which will see the recruitment of thousands of young Nigerians as armed forest guards, is designed to secure the country’s 1,129 forests that have increasingly become safe havens for terrorists, bandits, and other criminal groups.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, said Tinubu has directed the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Federal Ministry of Environment to oversee the implementation of the programme in collaboration with state governments.
“This recruitment is a security collaborative effort between the federal and state governments,” Dare stated.
“The president directed that the forest guards are to be well trained and armed to perform their duties, which is essentially to flush out terrorists and criminal gangs hiding inside the forests for criminal activities.”
The statement added that the President is determined to take back the country’s forests and ensure they are no longer sanctuaries for lawlessness.
“President Tinubu had warned that his administration would not surrender an inch of Nigeria’s territory to terrorists, bandits, and other criminal gangs,” it read.
The new forest guard initiative comes at a time of escalating insecurity in parts of the country, with forested regions being used by armed groups to launch attacks, stage kidnappings, and evade law enforcement.
Security experts and environmental advocates have welcomed the move as timely and necessary.
“This is a long-overdue response to the security realities of our rural areas,” said Musa Abdullahi, a security analyst based in Kaduna.
“Armed forest guards, if properly deployed and supported, can disrupt the operations of criminal elements and make our forests safer for agriculture, habitation, and conservation.”
A senior official at the Ministry of Environment, who spoke anonymously, noted that the initiative will also help address environmental degradation and illegal logging, while providing employment for thousands of youth.
Recruitment is expected to begin soon, with training modules to include weapons handling, intelligence gathering, and environmental surveillance.
