Former Chief of Army Staff and ex-Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. AbdulRahman Dambazau (retd.), has raised concerns that the United States might be planning to establish a military base in Nigeria.

Speaking in Abuja at the 7th Annual Lecture of the Just Friends Club of Nigeria, Dambazau suggested that recent remarks by some US politicians and religious leaders about the alleged persecution of Christians in Nigeria could be part of a broader strategy by foreign powers to advance their interests.

He pointed out that the US had maintained two military bases in neighboring Niger for over a decade without effectively addressing security challenges there.

“In the more than ten years of US presence in Niger, where it maintained two military bases, what did the US do to prevent the growth of security challenges?” he asked.

Dambazau described the US as a nation that primarily protects its own interests, even if it requires the use of force, and warned that some Nigerians could be inadvertently supporting external agendas.

He emphasized that Nigeria’s security challenges, including terrorism and insurgency, are part of wider regional instability across the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin and are not targeted at any single religion. Both Muslims and Christians have been victims of attacks, including killings in mosques, assassinations of clerics, and assaults on traditional rulers.

The retired general urged Nigerians to unite in addressing terrorism and violent crime rather than allowing foreign interests to exploit divisions within the country.