Egbewole charts path for West African regional security
By Mubarak Oladosu
Concerned by the deteriorating security situation across the West Africa subregion, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof.Wahab Egbewole, SAN, has urged the Federal government to assert its status as the paramount regional power to bring peace, stability and economic development to the region.
Prof. Egbewole gave this charge last Wednesday(May 13 , 2026) while delivering the maiden Strategic Intelligence Management Course Two (SIMC2) Lecture hosted by the Strategic Intelligence Management Institute (SIMI), Abuja, themed: “Nigeria and Her Neighbours: New Regional Dynamics, New Policy Responses.”
The Professor of Jurisprudence and International Law noted that in the past, Nigeria had risen up to similar challenges by restoring peace to Liberia and Sierra Leone through the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), adding that it is time the region walks the talk of a stand-by force given that the shifting regional dynamics is now an existential intelligence concern and an urgent diplomatic call to duty.
Prof. Egbewole, who is a member of the Nigerian Body of Benchers and Secretary-General of the Association of West African Universities (AWAU), noted that between 2020 and 2023, Nigeria’s neighbourhood was convulsed by eight successive coups that swept across West and Central African countries like Mali, Guinea , Burkina Faso, Niger and Gabon. He also referenced an attempted coup in Benin Republic in December 2025, which was thwarted by Nigeria’s swift military intervention.
According to Prof. Egbewole who wants to see more of such decisive leadership, “each coup in the neighbourhood comes with direct and indirect ruptures, the governance vacuum created brings immediate spill-over effects, frustrates the war against terrorism, throws up unpredictable actors into bilateral relationships, and creates conditions that violent jihadist groups and other criminal elements exploit to extend their operational reach.”
Prof. Egbewole warned that the expanding coup belt represents more than a regional governance problem, noting that it is a security challenge that poses a direct national security threat that is progressively pushing instability southward towards Nigeria from the Sahel States.
The Vice Chancellor, therefore, called on Nigeria to champion a new ECOWAS Security Protocol to manifest the Nigerian Neighbourhood Defence Doctrine through the full operationalisation of the ECOWAS Standby Force.
Prof Egbewole also recommended the establishment of a Nigeria-Benin-Ghana Coastal Security Corridor, the reinvigoration of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) in the Lake Chad Basin, and the full operationalisation of the Yaoundé Architecture on maritime security to bring peace and stability as a foundation for economic progress in the region.
According to him, “Nigeria can no longer handle its neighbourhood from a comfortable multilateral distance. It must engage bilaterally, continuously, intelligently, and with genuine strategic empathy for the human realities of each of its neighbours.”
To achieve this, the Vice Chancellor recommended the appointment of dedicated senior Neighbourhood Policy Envoys, the establishment of a Nigeria Neighbourhood Security Council, and the appointment of a Special Envoy for re-engagement with the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which comprises of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
Porf. Egbewole stressed the need for a new partnership model that treats development as a security imperative and called for a Neighbourhood Development Fund, the mobilisation of the ECOWAS Business Council, and the full implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He also called for sustained investment in the West Africa Intelligence Fusion Centre, the establishment of direct bilateral intelligence-sharing agreements, and the digitalisation of Nigeria’s border management infrastructure along with the development of a dedicated counter-disinformation capacity within the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
To make the proposals a reality, Prof. Egbewole also called for the creation of a Neighbourhood Policy Execution Unit in the Nigerian Presidency, the development of a Five-Year Nigeria Neighbourhood Strategic Plan, and the ring-fencing of dedicated budgetary allocations for neighbourhood policy implementation.
