Army set to deploy 4 more mine resistance vehicle to operation areas

The Nigerian Army would deploy four new mine resistant anti-ambush vehicle to fight terrorism in the North east and banditry in North west.

Chief of Army, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai said this Thursday during the unveiling of the four vehicles by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin after the graduation of participants of Strategic Management and Policy Studies Course 1, at the Nigerian Army Resource centre, Abuja.

He said the vehicles were designed and manufacture by an indigenous company in collaboration with the Nigerian Army.

The army chief said five more of the vehicles were still expected before the year runs out.

Earlier while addressing the participants of the strategic course 1, the Chief of Defence Staff challenged the officers to deploy the knowledge they had acquired to proffer solution to the security challenges in the country.

Olonisakin said that education was a life-long pursuit in the military, adding that military must braze up and offer lasting solution to the plethora of security situation in line with their constitutional mandates.  

He commended the chief of army staff for the initiative to introduce the course, adding that the armed forces would continue to train their officers in all sphere of human endaevours for the benefit of the nation.

In his address, Chief of Army Staff said the idea to develop the programme was borne out of the yearning to fill the “noticeable gap in the career management of the top echelon of senior officers of Nigerian army and indeed all other relevant security services as the case may be.”

He said, “The three specific reasons for conceiving this programme firstly, the course was designed to adequately prepare top level senior officers on how to understand and examine security through another prism. Particularly, the management of private and public entrepreneurial venture and many others. That informed the selection of the theme for this year’s programme – “food sufficiency as a major factor in the national security architecture of Nigeria”. 

“Secondly, the course was held in the promotion of inter-agency collaboration by deepening the existing relationships and understanding among ministries, departments and agencies. This informed my deliberate plan to deepen the number of Nigerian army participants in the course in order to allow other strategic agencies to subscribe and participate fully.

“Lastly, the course was designed to develop a critical thinking mass at the top echelon of the Nigerian army which is required for the management of resources and equipment.”

The Army Chief said the curriculum of the strategic and policy management course centered around the four semantic areas of policy, management, entrepreneurship and research methodology and fully justified the establishment of this programme.

“Additionally, the collaboration with Nigerian Defence Academy School of Postgraduate Studies to award the participants a master degree on successful completion of this course is quite significant towards the human capacity development drive of the Nigerian army,” he said.

“It is my sincere belief that the knowledge the participants have acquires will be of great benefit to the nation and the individual participants in their engagements in our dynamic civil society.

“I therefore make bold to say that this course is a win-win programme for the participants, their services and agencies as well as the society as a whole.”

Director General of the centre, Maj.-Gen. Ganiyu Wahab (RTD), said the increase in the state of insecurity in the nation “coupled with the dynamic nature of threats which are constantly evolving necessitate the need for human capacity development and the need for senior military officers to acquire skill and requisite knowledge to operate successfully within the local environment.”

A total of 19 participants including five Major Generals, one Rear Admiral, four Brigadier Generals, three Colonels and one Captain of the Nigerian Navy attended the course.

Others are two deputy Directors each from Department of State Security Service and Federal Road Safety Corps and a Principal Education Officer from the Federal Ministry of Education. 

Leave a Reply