TINUBU’S ILLEGAL TROOP DEPLOYMENT: A PRESIDENT WHO ACTS FIRST AND SEEKS THE LAW LATER 

By Bello Abdullahi.

There are moments in the life of a nation when silence becomes a form of national suicide. This is one of them.

The recent attempt by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to deploy Nigerian troops to the Republic of Benin before approaching the Senate for approval is not just a procedural misstep, it is a constitutional transgression with profound implications for our democracy. It confirms a worrying pattern: the executive acts first, and only when public scrutiny intensifies does it remember the existence of the law.

For clarity, the Constitution is not vague. Section 5(4) of the 1999 Constitution stipulates that the President shall not deploy the Armed Forces on combat missions without the prior approval of the National Assembly. This provision was not inserted to decorate the text. It is the firewall separating democracy from militarised executive impunity. It is the guardrail preventing one man from dragging a nation of over 200 million into costly foreign entanglements based on personal judgment alone.

Yet here we are again: a President making consequential military decisions first, and only afterwards sending a polite letter to the Senate to “seek approval.” This is not democratic governance. It is a constitutional afterthought masquerading as consultation.

Nigeria has a painful history of soldiers returning in sealed coffins from wars they never understood, fighting in terrain that offered neither strategic benefit nor moral justification. This is why troop deployment is one of the most jealously guarded legislative powers in every functioning democracy. It is not an administrative formality. It is a matter of life, death, sovereignty, and national interest.

The President’s letter to the Senate is therefore not evidence of respect for the law, it is evidence of having breached it.

There is an unmistakable arrogance in assuming that the National Assembly’s role is merely to stamp decisions already made. This is how democratic institutions decay: not by dramatic collapse, but by slow, stealthy erosion disguised as “executive necessity.”

Where was the urgency that justified bypassing the Senate?
Where was the imminent threat that made constitutional compliance inconvenient?
Where was the candour to tell Nigerians the true stakes of the mission?

If Nigeria must project power abroad, it must be done within the framework of law, not presidential brinkmanship.

What the Senate must ask is not merely whether troops should go to Benin Republic. That is secondary. The primary question is: Why did the President violate the Constitution in the first place?
A democracy that excuses breaches today will justify authoritarianism tomorrow.

Nigeria deserves better than a commander-in-chief who treats the Constitution as an optional footnote.

And if the Senate chooses to look away, history will remember that once again, when accountability beckoned, our lawmakers answered with silence.

Bello Abdullahi
Public Affairs _Commentator • Social Critic • _Advocate for _Moral Leadership
Founder. _#GaskiyaAlliance — a_ _platform committed to truth, accountability, and civic courage._