The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru Elrufai claimed there are less than 200,000 members of the Nigerian Armed forces and about 300,000 men of the Police.
El-Rufai made this claim while answering questions on security on behalf of his principal and Presidential Candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu at the Chatham House.
This claim is false, here are the reasons
Data available on the world bank website shows that Nigeria has 223,000 men in the army in 2019. The graph shows that the army size has been on the increase without a decline since the year 2000 (over 19 years of increase). This is 23,000 more than El-Rufai’s claim.
Research also shows that the army recruited 5000 in 2019 and according to the commander, of the Training and Doctrine Command of the Nigerian Army, Stephen Olabanji, 21,885 persons are expected to be recruited, trained and commissioned in 2022. However, only 5800 were recruited
Though 148 military men were reported dead in 2019, the number of departures/ death has had no significant impact on the strength of the Nigerian army.
Former inspector general of police, Ibrahim Idris in 2018 said there are about 334, 000 policemen in the country
Conclusion
This claim by El-Rufai is FALSE as he underrepresented the number of the Nigerian Police and army.
