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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Agwai seeks training for armed forces
THE Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Martin Luther Agwai yesterday called for an elaborate training programme for the nation's armed forces to prepare them for modern challenges of Peace Support Operation (PSO) at the international level.
Agwai was at the Command and Staff College (CSC), Jaji to commission the peace-keeping wing and inauguration of the methods of instruction course at Infantry Centre and School (ICS).
He noted: I observed during my involvement with United Nations (UN) Peace-Keeping Mission all over the world that troops deployed for PSO need elaborate training to prepare them for modern challenges that have made PSO multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary.
He continued: "In the 2004 training directives, my focus shifted from conventional warfare training to operations other than war, such as PSO".
According to him, the aim to shift focus towards these strategic operations is to ensure that Nigeria Army troops deployed for PSO anywhere in the world are adequately prepared.
The army chief also said that due to the size of the Nigerian Army and the number of PSO invited to participate in the limited vacancies offered, the regional centres of excellence in Ghana and Mali could not meet the training requirements.
"Our huge PSO commitments suggest that Nigeria, as a major troop contributing country, should established her own training facility to meet peace support mission", he said.
Agwai also pointed out that to realise the vision of establishing the peace-keeping wing in Jaji, "we sought the assistance of the United Kingdom. This is in recognition of their commitment to the pursuit of peace and security in the world and the West African sub-region in particular.
"They have accepted in principle to make their input into our short, medium and long term training goals. There have been several visits by the British Defence Advisory Team to ICS to discuss how to achieve our common objective."
Agwai continued "we have received computers and other training aid from the U.K., their personnel are here as a short term training team for the methods of Instruction Course", which began yesterday. "These are part of assistance being explored and discussed. We wish to thank the British for their input and commitment in ensuring that the Nigerian Army benefits from their immense experience. On our part, we will continue to do all within our resources to contribute to the maintenance of global peace and security."
In his address, the Commandant of ICS, Major Gen. Olotu Maxwell Appah praised Agwai for his foresight in ensuring that the army was well equipped for peace-keeping operations around the globe.
He said: "Although conflicts are taken to be inherent aspect of human relations, whether at group, national or international levels, the prevalence of conflicts in African continent in contemporary times has assumed the dimension of a scourge."
Appah pointed out that so serious had the problem of conflicts become that it was the greatest impediment to any meaningful development on the African continent.
"Even at global level, the crisis situation is spreading so fast; the very sad commentary on these crises is that there is insecurity everywhere," he stated
Noting that the country had been at the vanguard of peace-keeping in the past 40 years, Appah stated: "Suffice to say, however, that despite the wealth of experience gathered by the Nigerian Army, it has not impacted much positively on the quality of the personnel inducted into these operations.
"Troops were usually inducted on adhoc basis without adequate realistic training which have resulted in heavy casualties in men and materials."
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