The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Azubike Ihejirika says the solution to the evolving security challenges does not lie with the senior military officers alone.
General Ihejirika who spoke at the 2012 Nigerian Army Transformation Stakeholders Conference said the changing nature of security challenges requires the contribution of all military personnel and civilians.
He a said the main focus of the army and other security agencies is how to transform to adapt to the ever changing security environments to ensure that the wave of terrorism is reduced to the barest minimum and eventually wiped out
Heads of different units in the Nigerian army were at the annual gathering, aimed at evaluating the level of successes and challenges of the Nigerian Army transformation agenda.
Director ONAT Brigadier General Peter Bojie who gave the opening remarks said “To truly transform the Nigeria Army in this practical terms, a periodic stock taking and review of essentials to measure the progress of a plan necessary. This becomes necessary considering the Nigerian Army transformation framework which enters its long term face this year”.
The Chief of Army Staff who was the guest of honour at the event made a case for all the transformation agenda to be geared towards meeting contemporary security challenges in the country. This he said this can only be achieved if both the security agencies and civilians work together. ‘‘The solution to the security challenges we are faced with does not lie solely with the generals alone. I can tell you that the situation we operate now is that if a colonel has brilliant ideas, bring it forward lets debate it. If you win you have your way. So this is the attitude I want” he said.
General Ihejirika listed some of the steps taken by the military to tackle the rising cases of terrorism in the country. “Creating small forces that can operate fairly independently to be able to meet the fluid nature of the challenge we are faced with, a quick response squads, detachable road blocks, modern target system and a troop of soldiers presently undergoing training on counter terrorism in Jaji and Kachi (both in Kaduna state) numbering 2000”.
This meeting will amongst other things, review the transformation activities of the army and measure its impact, evaluate long, medium and short term goals of the agenda.
