Army Day Celebration: Buhari hails Army for saving Nigeria from disintegration

President Muhammadu Buhari has commended the Nigerian Army for saving the nation from disintegration.

The President also reiterated the commitment of his administration to provide adequate funding and equipments for the Army to tackle security challenges confronting the nation.

Represented by the Minister of Defence Maj.-Gen. Bashir Salihi Magashi (retd), Buhari stated this at the grand finale of Nigerian Army Day Celebration (NADCEL) in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said, “I salute the courageous and gallant exploits of the personnel of the Nigerian Army. I am highly impressed with the conduct of operations that flushed out the terrorists and criminals from their strongholds.

“You have saved Nigeria from disintegration and have demonstrated a high sense of professionalism in your operations. I want to assure you that this Government and indeed the Nigerian People deeply appreciate your noble sacrifices to safeguard our nation.

“I want to assure you of my government’s commitment to your welfare. We will continue to provide you with the needed support to enhance your welfare. In the same vein, I am aware of the challenges confronting the Nigerian Army such as inadequate equipment and insufficient funds for maintenance and training as well as other logistics constraints affecting your operational efficiency. As you may be aware, my government has put in place a mechanism that would address these problems in phases albeit in the face of other competing national demands.”

Buhari also assure Nigerians that the security challenges confronting the nation will soon be a thing of the past.

“This Government appreciates and commends recent efforts by individuals, community members, traditional leaders and numerous civil society organizations especially the youths that are cooperating and supporting the security agencies in exposing all agents of destruction and instability in our polity. As a responsible Government, we are conscious of the challenges being faced by the citizenry. | would like to assure you that these would be resolved in the shortest possible time.” He said.

Speaking earlier, the Chief of Army Staff, Maj.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya, NADCEL presents opportunity for the NA to also deliberate on its future by fine tuning and redirecting its efforts to remain in perfect harmony with its constitutional responsibility of defending the territorial integrity of Nigeria and its Constitution.

Yahaya said he has since assuming command, repositioned the Nigerian Army to tackle security challenges confronting the nation.

“For the past one month or thereabout, the Nigerian Army has been repositioning itself, as an Army ready to accomplish assigned missions within a joint environment in the defence of our dear nation.

“It is through our concerted efforts that the activities of insurgents, terrorists’ secessionist and other violent criminal elements that threatened the very corporate existence of this country have been greatly reduced.”