President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday met with top officials of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, as Nigeria and the United States deepen collaboration on security matters.
The U.S. delegation was led by the Commander of AFRICOM, General Dagvin Anderson, and comprised senior military and diplomatic officials. The high-level meeting brought together Nigeria’s key security and defence leadership.
The engagement was disclosed by the President’s Special Assistant on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, via a post on X, where he noted that President Tinubu received the AFRICOM delegation alongside the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, as well as heads of Nigeria’s armed forces and intelligence agencies.
Members of the U.S. delegation included General Anderson; AFRICOM Command Sergeant Major and Senior Enlisted Leader, Garric M. Banfield; Senior Foreign Policy Adviser to AFRICOM, Ambassador Peter Vrooman; and other senior officials of the command.
On the Nigerian side, the meeting was attended by the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (rtd); the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede; the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Waidi Shaibu; the Chief of Defence Intelligence, Lieutenant-General Emmanuel Uandiandeye; the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Mohammed Mohammed; and the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Tosin Ajayi.
The meeting comes just days after U.S. President Donald Trump approved the deployment of a small contingent of American troops to Nigeria to provide training and intelligence support, as the country continues to confront terrorism and banditry that have claimed thousands of lives, particularly in northern Nigeria.
