Nigerian Army

The Nigerian Army's lineage runs from Lieutenant John Hawley Glover's Hausas — about 18 freed slaves of Hausa origin he recruited at Lagos in 1863 to form a constabulary for the colony. Glover's Hausas were folded into the Lagos Constabulary, then the Royal Niger Constabulary of George Goldie's chartered company, and on 1 January 1900 — at the proclamation of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria — into the West African Frontier Force, renamed the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) in 1928.

The Nigeria Regiment of the RWAFF fought in the Cameroons campaign (1914–16), in East Africa against Lettow-Vorbeck (1916–18), and in the Burma campaign of the Second World War as part of the 81st and 82nd West African Divisions. Demobilisation after 1945 returned thousands of trained Nigerian NCOs to civilian life — among them future Sergeant Adaka Boro's contemporaries and the first generation of nationalist veterans.

Nigerianisation began in 1956 when the force was renamed the Nigerian Military Forces; the first Nigerian commissioned officer (Lt Louis Victor Ugboma) had been gazetted in 1948. At Independence in 1960 the Army inherited a 7,500-man force commanded by a British General Officer Commanding (Major-General Norman Foster), with only 81 Nigerian commissioned officers. Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi became the first Nigerian GOC in February 1965.

The Army has governed Nigeria for roughly 29 of its 65 post-Independence years — 1966–1979 and 1983–1999. Its political history is told in the coup record and the Civil War story. Operationally it has fought the Nigerian Civil War 1967–70, led the ECOMOG interventions in Liberia and Sierra Leone (1990–1999), and since 2009 has been the lead service in the counter-insurgency campaign against Boko Haram and ISWAP in the North-East.