…lists manpower, funding, other factors hindering optimal performance
Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, has listed challenges to do with funding, manpower, industrial base and poor understanding of security by Nigerians as factors militating against optimal performance by the service.
The Army Chief further said that every citizen should get involved in the security of lives and property in the country and not leave it to the security agencies alone.
Lagbaja made the presentation while delivering the 2024 distinguished personality lecture titled, “The Roles and Contributions of the Nigerian Army to National Development”, organised by the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin.
He was represented by the Chief of Training (Army), Major General Sanni Gambo Mohammed.
The COAS said it was unrealistic for about two million security personnel to be expected to secure the entire Nigerian population of over 200 million.
Nigeria’s security challenges include insurgency, militancy, armed robbery, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, herders’ farmers clashes and cultism among others.
“There is an erroneous belief that security is to be provided and ensured without interruption only and exclusively by the security agencies, particularly Nigerian Army wherever deployed,” Gen. Lagbaja said.
“This has led to apathy on the part of the public who feel less concerned except when their safety is directly threatened by activities of antisocial elements. The Nigerian Army along with other security agencies is under resourced.
“In a country of over 200 million people it is unrealistic for security operatives totaling around two million, including an army of just over 100,000 active personnel without a reserve force to secure the entire population.”
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.
