By Fatima Mohammed-Lawal
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, has identified inadequate funding, manpower, and the lack of a viable industrial base as some of the challenges hindering the Nigerian Army’s optimal contribution to addressing the nation’s security issues.
Lagbaja stated this on Tuesday in Ilorin while delivering the 2024 Distinguished Personality Lecture organized by Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies of the University of Ilorin.
The Lecture which was organised to mark the United Nations International Day of Peace, is also in collaboration with the Martin Luther Agwai International Leadership and Peacekeeping Centre, Jaji,
The theme of the programme is entitled: “The Roles and Contributions of the Nigerian Army to National Development”.
The COAS, who was represented by the Chief of Training (Army), Maj.-Gen. Sanni Gambo-Mohammed, said that the inadequacy in funding is affecting the level of equipment holding of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN), which has a direct bearing on performance.
“The pursuit of national development which goes alongside national security is a costly endeavour as defence policy is capital intensive.
“The entire AFN had a budget of about $2.8 billion in 2023, with additional supplementary of about one billion dollars. However, not all the budgetary provisions were eventually released.
“Although, funding for the AFN, as a whole, has been improving yearly since 2017, unfortunately, the downturn in the economic performance of the country has eroded the value of what is actualy
released,” he said.
Lagbaja stated that the inadequacy in funding is affecting the level of equipment holding of the AFN, which has a direct bearing on performance.
The COAS, who said that the federal government was committed to recruitment of more hands in the army as promised, stressed that the Nigerian Army, along with other security agencies, is under-resourced.
He said: “In a country with over 200 million people, it is unrealistic for security agencies totalling around 2 million including an Army of just over 100,000 active personnel, without a reserve force, to secure the entire population.
“The significant gap in resources is being exploited by criminal elements. To address this issue, it is crucial to invest in expanding and strengthening security forces, ensuring they have adequate personnel and resources”.
The COAS, submitted that there is a poor understanding of what security entails by many Nigerians.
He assert that security requires all citizens to be part of the security architecture in order to enhance vigilance, build trust, ensure local knowledge as well as community engagement.
According to him, this is to develop a more resilient citizenry who are better prepared to respond to national emergencies.
Lagbaja identified some of the roles and contributions of the Nigerian Army to national development, including internal security, combating external threats, peace support operations, unification of Nigerians as well as socio-economic development and policy provisions.
The COAS who said some of the military hardwares are now produced in the country, however observed that more than 90 per cent of military requirements are imported due to lack of industrial base.
In his speech, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Wahab Egbewole SAN, advocated continuous maintenance of peace and security for development.
Also speaking, the Director of the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Prof. Ibrahim Jawondo, said that the Centre offers short-term capacity-building training for professionals.
He added that a number of officers from the Nigeria Armed Forces, other security agencies as well as officers of other nations have benefitted from the programmes, graduated and are doing well in their callings.
“This is in furtherance of the overall vision of making the University of Ilorin number one in universities ranking in Nigeria, number 10 in Africa and number 500 in the world”.
