Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, on Tuesday identified inadequate funding and manpower as well as lack of a viable industrial base as some of the challenges hampering the contribution by the Nigerian Army to address the nation’s security challenges.
He spoke in Ilọrin, Kwara State capital, while delivering the 2024 distinguished personality lecture, titled, “The roles and contributions of the Nigerian Army to national development”.
The event was organised by the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin in collaboration with the Martin Luther Agwai International Leadership and Peacekeeping Centre, Jaji.
The event was organised to mark the United Nations International Day of Peace.
According to Lagbaja, the inadequacy in funding is affecting the level of equipment holding of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN), which has a direct bearing on performance.
“The pursuit of national development which goes alongside national security is a costly endeavour as defence policy is capital intensive.
“The entire AFN had a budget of about $2.8 billion in 2023, with an additional supplementary budget of about one billion dollars. However, not all the budgetary provisions were eventually released.
“Although, funding for the AFN, as a whole, has been improving yearly since 2017, unfortunately, the downturn in the economic performance of the country has eroded the value of what is actually released. The inadequacy in funding is affecting the level of equipment holding of the AFN, which has a direct bearing on performance”, he said.
The COAS, who was represented by the Chief of Training (Army), Major General Sanni Gambo Mohammed, said the federal government was committed to recruitment of more hands in the army as promised, stressing that the Nigerian Army, along with other security agencies, is under-resourced.
“In a country with over 200 million people, it is unrealistic for security agencies totalling around two million including an Army of just over 100,000 active personnel, without a reserve force, to secure the entire population.
“The significant gap in resources is being exploited by criminal elements. To address this issue, it is crucial to invest in expanding and strengthening security forces, ensuring they have adequate personnel and resources”, he highlighted.
The COAS security requires all citizens to be part of the security architecture in order to enhance vigilance, build trust, ensure local knowledge as well as community engagement.
“This is to develop a more resilient citizenry who are better prepared to respond to national emergencies”.
Lagbaja identified some of the contributions of the Nigerian Army to the national development to include internal security, combating external threats, peace support operations, unification of Nigerians as well as socio-economic development and policy provisions.
Though some of the military hardware are now produced in the country, Lt. Gen. Lagbaja said more than 90 percent of military requirements are imported due to lack of industrial base.
In his speech, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Wahab Egbewole, SAN, advocated continuous maintenance of peace and security for development.
Also speaking, the director of the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Professor Ibrahim Jawondo, said that the Centre offers short-time capacity-building training for professionals.
He noted that a number of officers from the Nigeria Armed Forces, other security agencies as well as officers of other nations have benefitted from the programmes and are doing well in their callings.