Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya, says the Nigerian Army is willing to partner with local manufacturing industries for the production of military hardware in the country.
Gen. Faruk stated this on Wednesday as the Special Guest of Honour at the Training and Doctrine Command’s ( TRADOC) Research and Development Conference 2021.
The theme of the conference which was held at the auditorium of TRADOC headquarters in Minna is: `Enhancing Nigerian Army Joint Operational Effectiveness Through Research and Development’.
Represented by the TRADOC’s Commander, Maj.-Gen. Stephenson Olabanji, the chief of army staff said that the initiative would make the country self reliant and also enable it to save scarce foreign exchange that could be channeled to other sectors of the economy in line with the Federal Government Economy Growth Plan.
He reiterated the commitment of the Nigerian Army in collaborating with renowned research-based Institutions toward realizing the noble objective of producing the required military hardwares.
He cited the example of the collaboration between the Defence Industries Corporation(DIC) and the Command Engineering Depot which he said had led to the development of hardware such as the “Ezugwu” and Conqueror MRAPS, the DSHK( Dashka) Anti- Aircraft gun as well as the Rocket Propelled Grenade-7.
Gen. Faruk further explained that founding constraints, diplomatic and other international bureaucratic bottlenecks had quite often limited the ability of the Nigerian Army to perform optimally.
” If we must be technologically self reliant as a nation ,it is imperative that we change our approach and begin to look inwards through a more valuable and rewarding research and development.
” It is worthy to note that a technologically empowered nation is a research and development-based nation.
” This explains why efforts need to be intensified toward meaningful Research and Development in the Nigerian Army, “he said.