President Bola Tinubu says African nations must work together to confront the “new generation of threats” facing the continent.

Mr Tinubu advised while addressing graduates of Senior Course 45 of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji.

The president added that non-state actors now stalk Africa in search of nations to plunder and people to oppress.

He added that the threats were exacerbated by urgent competition for precious resources across the continent.

“In too many instances, the contest turns violent. Areas that should blossom into economic prosperity and hope become factories of pillage and oppression.

“In Africa, this condition is perhaps our greatest challenge and harshest injustice,” he added.

He said efforts such as the multinational collaboration of Nigeria, Cameroun, Niger and Chad to bring peace to the Lake Chad region must be replicated across the continent to surmount the security challenges.

“Every day these malign actors hold sway over even an inch of African territory takes us a day farther away from our intended and best destiny.

“Your role in combating this grave evil is crucial. For we call on you to defend not only our land and resources but our people and their democratic existence,” Mr Tinubu charged the officers.

Describing the AFCSC as a bastion of learning and practice, Mr Tinubu said it opens the door of promise and future advance to the armed forces’ mid-level officers.

“It prepares them for higher responsibility while ensuring the standardisation of staff duties and functions throughout our Nigerian Armed Forces,” he said.

The president said the threats in Nigeria were asymmetric and transnational and called on the armed forces to combat the menace by defending Nigeria’s land and resources, the people, and their democratic existence.

He pledged to deploy the entire machinery of state power to ensure the security of Nigeria, its people and property in a just and democratic society.

Earlier, the college’s commandant, AVM Hassan Alhaji, said the students underwent 48 weeks of training and academics.

(NAN)