Why Forest Guards Are Becoming Central to Nigeria’s Security Strategy — Dr. Olasoji
“Why Forest Guards are becoming vital to Nigeria’s security strategy. Key lessons from Dr. Olasoji’s strategic lectures on ethics, community trust, and forest policing.”
Key lessons from twin strategic lectures delivered at the National Forest Guard Training Camp, Ila-Orangun, Osun State
Across Nigeria’s expansive forest belts, ungoverned spaces have increasingly evolved into theatres of violent crime, farmer–herder conflicts, illegal grazing, banditry, arms trafficking, and environmental offences. Far from being remote wildernesses, these forests function as living corridors connecting farms, rural settlements, trade routes, sacred sites, and border communities.
As conventional security agencies face growing operational pressure, Forest Guards are emerging as a critical—though often under-examined—layer of Nigeria’s internal security architecture, providing early warning, terrain control, community intelligence, and conflict prevention in areas where insecurity often incubates unnoticed, National Association of Online Security News Publishers (NAOSNP) reports.
Security Rooted in Legitimacy, Not Force
Forest Guards operate closest to Nigeria’s most volatile fault lines. However, their effectiveness, experts argue, depends less on coercive force and more on legitimacy, professionalism, and community consent. Without these pillars, forest security operations risk resistance, intelligence breakdowns, and avoidable violence.
This reality formed the backdrop of twin strategic lectures held in January 2026 at the National Forest Guard Training Camp (“Forest Camp”) in Ila-Orangun, Osun State. The sessions convened recruits, rank-and-file operatives, and ward and sector formations nationwide to interrogate a central operational question:
“How can Forest Guards enforce the law effectively without becoming a source of fear in already vulnerable rural spaces?”
The consensus: a unified doctrine rooted in lawful authority, disciplined conduct, and community legitimacy.
Ethics as Law, Not Personal Preference
Delivering the lectures, the Commander of the Enugu State Forest Guard (ESFG), Dr. Akinbayo O. Olasoji, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rtd.), emphasised that ethics in forest security is a statutory obligation, not discretionary behaviour.
“Ethics in forest security is not a personal value judgment,” he told participants. “It is a binding statutory obligation.”
Dr. Olasoji anchored this position on established legal frameworks, including the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Enugu State Forest Guard Law, 2020, the Enugu State Prohibition of Open Grazing and Regulation of Cattle Ranching Law, 2021, the Firearms Act, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, and the Evidence Act, 2011, alongside public-service rules and law-enforcement ethics standards.
Reinforcing a core ESFG doctrine, he stated unequivocally:
“Authority exists only within the law.”
Building Security Through Trust, Not Fear
Beyond legality, the lectures highlighted community trust as the cornerstone of effective forest security.
“Forests are not isolated zones,” Dr. Olasoji explained. “They are linked to farms, settlements, markets, footpaths, and sacred sites. That reality makes community partnership a decisive operational factor.”
He warned that poor engagement breeds mistrust, intelligence failure, delayed early warning, and escalation of minor disputes into violent confrontations—outcomes that ultimately endanger operatives themselves.
Conversely, trust transforms communities into intelligence and security partners.
“Community engagement is not weakness; it is operational strength. Trust is a force multiplier. When you win the community, you win the forest.”
Non-Negotiable Standards of Conduct
The lectures translated ethical principles into clear operational rules governing patrols, checkpoints, intelligence handling, arrest support, and inter-agency cooperation.
Key non-negotiable standards reinforced included:
Universal human-rights compliance
Lawful, necessary, and proportionate use of force
Zero tolerance for torture, brutality, corruption, extortion, or record falsification
Strict confidentiality and informant protection
Political neutrality
Mandatory reporting of misconduct, supported by whistle-blower safeguards
“Human-rights compliance applies to everyone, always,” Dr. Olasoji stressed.
Decision-Making Under Pressure
To strengthen field judgment, operatives were trained using the L-N-P-A model—Legality, Necessity, Proportionality, Accountability.
Before acting, officers were urged to ask:
Is it lawful?
Is it genuinely required?
Is it the minimum reasonable response?
Can it be openly defended in writing and before lawful authority?
The guiding rule was clear:
“If you cannot defend it, don’t do it.”
Early Warning and Conflict Prevention
Forest Guards, participants were reminded, are not merely enforcers but stabilisers.
Training focused on identifying early warning indicators such as rumour patterns, unusual forest movements, resource-pressure signals, and enforcement triggers capable of igniting conflict.
A standard dispute-management workflow was reinforced: Assess, Stabilise, Separate, Dialogue, Decide (Enforce or Refer), Document, Report, and Follow-up, with clear thresholds for referral to the Police, DSS, courts, and civil authorities.
“Forest Guards are peace managers,” Dr. Olasoji noted, “but they must operate strictly within legal limits.”
High-Sensitivity Enforcement: Open Grazing
Given the national sensitivity surrounding open-grazing enforcement, the lectures stressed calm, lawful, and non-discriminatory operations, free of harassment, ethnic profiling, extortion, or improper impoundment.
Ethical professionalism, participants were told, is essential to preventing rural instability and escalation in mixed-use forest zones.
Training, Accountability, and Institutional Culture
The sessions employed scenario-based learning, decision drills, and misconduct case studies. Ethics and community-engagement competence were designated mandatory core requirements, tied to refresher training, promotion criteria, and formal personnel records.
Responsibility for trust-building was distributed across all command levels—state, zonal, sector, ward, and frontline formations—embedding accountability into institutional culture.
A Broader National Lesson
In one of the most quoted moments of the lectures, Dr. Olasoji concluded:
“A Forest Guard is a trust-bearer, not a power-holder. Uniform and equipment do not create authority; character does. Without integrity, authority collapses.”
Security analysts say the Ila-Orangun engagement underscores a critical national lesson: sustainable forest security depends less on coercion and more on professionalism, legality, and partnership with communities.
As Nigeria confronts rising insecurity across rural and forested regions, the message from Ila-Orangun is clear—when Forest Guards operate within the law and with the people, forests transform from security liabilities into strategic national assets.
