Nigeria’s Senate has unanimously approved the deployment of troops to neighbouring Benin to help restore order following a failed coup attempt last weekend.
The endorsement came on Tuesday during a plenary session, where lawmakers reviewed President Bola Tinubu’s urgent request under the constitution.
The president had already ordered the move last week without prior approval, citing the need to prevent an unconstitutional takeover that could destabilise the West African region.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio announced the decision after the chamber sat as a Committee of the Whole to assess the security, humanitarian and diplomatic ramifications.
He stressed the interconnected risks, saying: “An injury to one is an injury to all. “Mr Tinubu described the Benin crisis as requiring “urgent external intervention” to avert a broader breakdown of order.
The approval letter was immediately sent to the president. The coup bid unfolded on Sunday when a group calling itself the “Military Committee for Refoundation” (CMR) seized national television in Cotonou to declare President Patrice Talon removed from office.
Benin’s regular army swiftly intervened, regaining control of the capital and the country. Sources close to Mr Talon said the situation was stabilising, with the “clean-up progressing well”.
The plot was foiled without major casualties, but it heightened fears in a region plagued by recent military takeovers in Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau and Madagascar.
The deployment forms part of an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) standby force, including personnel from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, to bolster Benin’s republican army and safeguard constitutional rule.
Analysts warn that the incident could trigger refugee flows across porous borders into Nigeria, threatening border communities and regional trade.
Benin shares a long frontier with Nigeria in the northwest, near the unstable Sahel zone.Nigeria, as ECOWAS’s most populous member, has a history of leading such interventions to protect democracy in the subregion.
However, the move comes amid domestic criticism of overstretched security resources at home.