Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has suggested ways in
which Nigeria can tackle the current security challenges in the country.
Osinbajo said Nigeria’s current security challenges and
emerging threats require the country’s military and other relevant stakeholders
to be several steps ahead of perpetrators while also stepping up local
production of armaments.
The Vice President said this after receiving a presentation
on “Defence Transformation and National Security: Strategic Options for Nigeria
of the Future”, by the National Defence College Course 30 participants late
Wednesday during a virtual interaction.
He said, “if you look at the challenges that we are facing
and the nature of those challenges, it is evident that we need to be many steps
ahead of non-state actors in particular who are perpetrators of this asymmetric
warfare that we are experiencing.”
Osinbajo added that “it is clear that given current
realities in our security situation, there is absolutely every need for us to
fast-forward all our plans for the future so that we can be much more effective
in dealing with the current threats and the threats that we will experience as
we go into the future.
“One of the most critical areas is the question of local
production of military hardware and I think it is low-hanging fruit when it
comes to manufacturing some of the hardware that we will need. I think that
there is a need, especially now to really look very closely at local production
of our hardware, beginning with armament.
“We mentioned India, Brazil, and even the more developed
economies of the world, during the first world war, the second world war, it
was these challenges that led to the development of their military-industrial
complexes. We have a challenge today, there are so many zones where there are
conflicts. Our law enforcement is spread out everywhere.
“If we say the local companies should produce some of the
mobile platforms like Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and Multi-Role
Armoured Vehicle (MRAV), if we give them the contracts, they will produce, but
if we choose to import rather than produce locally then we will never develop
our military-industrial complex.”
Osinbajo also spoke about the need for transparency in the
management of resources meant for the acquisition of hardware for the defence
and security agencies.
“There needs to be more accountability because every time
you hear, ‘we do not have enough equipment,’ but there must be accountability.
I would like to see a framework for greater accountability within the Ministry
of Defence that ensures that they are able to account for military
expenditure,” he said.
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