{"id":40493,"date":"2026-07-24T12:53:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40493"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:53:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:53:04","slug":"nigerias-tinubu-approves-army-expansion-to-12-divisions-with-28-000-new-recruits","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nigerias-tinubu-approves-army-expansion-to-12-divisions-with-28-000-new-recruits\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria&#8217;s Tinubu approves army expansion to 12 divisions with 28 000 new recruits"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has approved an expansion of the \u200barmy to 12 divisions from eight \u200cand the recruitment of 28000 additional personnel, the presidency said on Friday, as the government \u200bseeks to bolster its response to \u200bpersistent security threats.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_mail-editor-reference-message-container\" class=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-reference-message\">\n<div id=\"x_mail-editor-reference-message-container\">\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Tinubu approved four new \u2060army divisions in Makurdi, Ilorin, Jalingo \u200band Benin City, Spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The government also approved an increase in investment in equipment, operational readiness and troop welfare to \u200bmodernise the armed forces.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The expanded \u200b12 division structure will retain headquarters in eight cities, with \u200cthe \u2060new formations covering parts of central, northeastern and southern Nigeria.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The expansion will be implemented in two phases, with the \u200b5th, 9th \u200band 10th \u2060divisions operational by September and the 83rd Division in Benin \u200bCity by December.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15765,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-40493","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has approved an expansion of the \u200barmy","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40494,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40493\/revisions\/40494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}