Posted by From Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja on
Federal Government yesterday said the new defence policy is expected to meet the challenges of globalisation even as it identified military intervention in politics and religious fanaticism as the threats to the political growth of the nation.
Federal Government yesterday said the new defence policy is expected to meet the challenges of globalisation even as it identified military intervention in politics and religious fanaticism as the threats to the political growth of the nation.
Delivering a lecture on "National Defence Policy Objectives" to participants of National War College Course 13, Minister of Defence, Mr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, noted that the new national defence policy must be capable of responding to global challenges and peculiar circumstances.
"Nigeria's national defence policy for the next decade must be capable of effectively responding to both global challenges and the peculiar circumstances of our domestic and regional environment. This assumes greater significance when one realises that modern technology has transformed the pattern of warfare to the extent that no single service can prosecute war on its own," he explained.
He said current trends in the defence policy was focusing on the need to facilitate the joint deployment of the armed forces and other security establishments to meet the country's security needs.
The minister added that the frequent entry of the military into the politics of the nation was affecting the effective professionalisation of the Nigerian military.
"The frequent entry of the military into the political terrain of the country has remained a constant reminder to the threat posed by that institution to the political development of the country. This has also posed a problem to the effective professionalisation of the military," he observed, while urging the military to come up with concrete proposals on how the military would continue to subordinate itself to civil authority as provided for in the Nigerian constitution.
In a related development, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Martin Luther Agwai said the cream of officers in the Nigerian Army would uphold the tenets of the profession in the discharge of their duties.
Speaking while decorating Brigadier General Nuhu Bamali, who was promoted to the rank of Major General, he said the army was committed to their duty, noting that "with the high standard of integrity that we have, we would be able to weather any kind of storm that would come our way."