The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Admiral Ola Ibrahim, on Thursday said the Armed Forces would recruit additional 50,000 personnel in the next few years ahead to meet up with the current security challenges in the country.
Ibrahim said this in a lecture entitled: “The Vision of the Chief of Defence Staff for the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” delivered for senior course 36 of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State.
He said the additional personnel would complement the provision of equipment and training to strengthen the capability of the armed forces to meet future challenges.
The CDS said that the armed forces were also being re-engineered to meet the current security challenges in the country.
He said that the focus was to have “a lighter more deployable armed forces” with the capabilities to respond effectively to all kind of security challenges within internationally acceptable parameters.
He said the re-engineering was also meant to have an armed force that “is very ready to uphold peace and security in a democratic Nigeria, and committed to the protection of Nigeria’s larger national interest”.
Ibrahim identified terrorism, piracy, light arms, drug and human trafficking as some of the major security issues confronting the nation, adding that the military was being transformed to tackle them.
The defence chief said that social insecurity was largely responsible for the restiveness in various parts of the country, assuring that the Federal Government was taking measures to reduce the inequities in the system.
Ibrahim urged members of the armed forces to remain focussed and committed to Nigeria, assuring them that the ongoing transformation would continue. (NAN)
NO PROBLEM, WHEN EVERYONE TURNS TO SECURITY, MAYBE WE’LL FIND THE LOST PEACE IN THE COUNTRY.
May GoD help us in diz country