Chief of Army Staff Lt-Gen. Faruk Yahaya has said the Nigerian Army has the capacity and moral strength to deliver on its constitutional mandate and that there is no legal task it cannot achieve. While commending the country’s troops for their commitment and sacrifices across the theatres of operations and the recently concluded general elections, he charged them to sustain the tempo in the defence of the nation.
At the closing ceremony of the 3rd Quarter Chief of Army Staff Conference in Abuja, the COAS said the Nigerian Army was on course towards self-sufficiency in defence production. He charged the commanders to identify, harness and encourage personnel with research potential to do more to enhance research and development to curb contemporary challenges.
Yahaya said, “I have no doubt that we are on course towards achieving self-sufficiency in defence production. I’m glad that the Nigerian Army research and development has in recent times received renewed push to contribute towards addressing our needs and contemporary challenges… “I must also remark that we have capacity and moral strength to deliver on our constitutional mandate.
We should therefore, always be reminded that we are men of honour and we should perform our duty with courage and complete loyalty “ he said. General Yahaya said it was collective efforts of the Nigerian Army personnel that led to operational successes being recorded across the theatres of operations and charged them to consolidate such efforts in order to “sustain the achievements and totally eradicate terrorism and other nefarious activities from our beloved nation” He said commanders must strive to improve on recorded successes “ As command responsibility, all commanders should always think ‘two down’ and ensure thorough supervision and guidance”.
The COAS while charging commanders to take serious troops conduct during operations said “ As command responsibility, relevant commanders at various levels must monitor closely the behaviour of personnel deployed for all operations and appropriately reward and sanction personnel as necessary “
He also charged commanders to awaken the consciousness of adherence to basic tenets of tactics and field craft “ you must ensure thorough and detailed briefings and debriefing of troops before and after operations. You must continue to contain all the equipment under your commands and device measures for safe keeping and accounting of all arms and ammunition.
Commanding officers must take full responsibility for their units and always apply their initiatives in taking charge of their units.” The COAS commenting on the Army’s preparation towards may 29 handing and taking over parade, said “we must therefore, put all hands on deck to ensure the event turns out as
