Nigeria and Gambia has formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on defence cooperation at a brief ceremony held at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters Abuja.
Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi (rtd), and the Gambian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mohamadou Musa Njie, signed for their respective countries, each extolling the MOU as signaling a new era in their relations especially as countries now face common threats of insecurity that require joint operations and cooperation to be tackled.
Nigeria played a major role in helping the Republic of Gambia to stabilise her polity and resolving its electoral impasse following the disputed election of 2016.
Currently, Nigeria deployed over 200 military personnel serving under the ECOWAS Mission in the Gambia (ECOMIG).
In addition, Gambian military officers and personnel are undergoing courses in various training institutions in the country. And it is expected that with the MOU, more slots would be opened for personnel of the Gambian military.
At the signing ceremony, both General Magashi and Ambassador Njie pledged to work for stronger fraternity in defence cooperation as they operationalise the terms and conditions of the MoU.
They both pledged to use the specifics of the agreement to boost “existing joint military maneuverability, operability as well as tactical and technical synergy.”
Specifically, they committed both Nigeria and Gambia to “enhanced networking in Intelligence sharing, capacity building and the need to emplace robust counter trans-national strategy to decisively clear the effrontery and the audacity of the adversaries threatening the corporate existence of the two coastal nations who share common Membership of African Union, ECOWAS and geographical similarities within the West African Sub-region.”
