By Olayemi Esan
In a bid to have greater situational awareness of Operations from Theatres, the Nigerian Army has commissioned a newly constructed Operations Centre at the Army Headquarters which was necessitated by the growing involvement of the Nigerian Army in a plethora of operations across the country.
In his remark, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Farouk Yahaya said, the idea of having a befitting Operation Centre for the Nigerian Army was conceived by the former Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General TY Buratai (Retd), who is now the Nigerian Ambassador to the Benin Republic at the twilight of his tenure as the Chief of Army Staff.
General Yahaya said, assuming office, he prioritized the completion of the project. This was in realization of the growing importance of technology to military operations and the need to adequately leverage same to improve the operational picture of Army Headquarters.
He said, the intention was to have an appropriate facility that could provide the Army Headquarters with real time situational awareness on all operational activities across operational theatres where troops are deployed.
"We will continue and improve on the legacy Lt Gen TY Buratai had laid down, reason why the Operations Centre was uplifted and established.
"The Centre has state of the art facilities that enables it to serve the 3 fold functions of a Command Centre, a situation room and an operations briefing facility.
"We shall conduct our Monday Briefing here in order to talk directly to all General Officer Commanding GOC's, and toallbthe sectors in the Theaters, and Nigerian Army Headquarters in Lokoja", he said.
The COAS thanked the former Chief of Army Staff and Ambassador to Republic of Benin, Lt Gen TY Buratai (Retd) for his imput and support and leveraging on his wealth of experience to guide the Nigerian Army after his retirement.
The Special Guest of Honour in his remark Lieutenant General TY Buratai said, "To have a befitting operational centre is an indication that the Nigerian Army is a very serious and professional organizatin. They are making sure the full implementation of its constitutional responsibilities.
"The Nigerian Army before 2015 is different now. We see new logs ern army, professional and versatile and carrying along all the bother sevices to operate in a joint environment and to operate jointly for the attainment of national objective of territorial Defence and maintainance of our territorial integrity", he noted.
He opined that, the first class edifice, excellently finish should be handle from the rank of Major in the Nigerian Army which is the operational level with the very good background.
He thanked the COAS for the completion of the project Chief of Operations and other senior officers who contributed to the success of the new edifice. He pray it will be utilize for what it meant to be.
Earlier, the Chief of Operations Major General OT Akinjobi while briefing Guest at the epoch ceremony, said the facility has the capability to interface with related assets of the other Services for optimal joint operations.
It affords the Army headquarters the enhanced reach and the ability to quickly intervene, direct and influence ongoing operations. From the Centre, the Army Headquarters would have a common operational picture with commanders in the field.
More importantly, the facility is scalable and can therefore accommodate further add-ons as the Nigerian Army continues to embrace the technologies of the times with a view to better performing her constitutional roles in line with the COAS’ Vision of “A Professional Nigerian Army Ready to Accomplish Assigned Missions Within a Joint Environment in Defence of Nigeria”. In this light, live feeds from drones and other information technology equipment can be viewed from the Centre.
Furthermore, the Nigerian Army Operations Centre is equipped with adequately resourced workstations for dedicated desk officers for all current and future operations. These desk officers would be expected to string together occurrences in each Theatre in order to develop an overarching picture of the generalized operating environment for needed Army Headquarters directives.
In addition, the Centre has the needed support offices including one for the Chief of Army Staff in the event of exigencies requiring his prolonged stay at the Operations Centre. The Centre is thus well suited to ensure that Army Headquarters has close to the same operational picture as the formations with a view to providing greater guidance for the Army’s operational activities.
It is therefore gratifying to state that the facility being commissioned today prepares the Nigerian Army for the future. May I at this juncture express our profound gratitude to the Chief of Army Staff for his untiring support and numerous timely interventions to the Department of Army Operations in particular, and the entire spectrum of Nigerian Army operations in general.
Present at the event are, Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Faruk Yahaya, Former Chiefnof Army Staff, Lt Gen TY Buratai, Commander, Cyber Warfare Command, Major General A Adamu, Chief of Defence Training and Operations, Chief of Training and Operations of Naval Headquarters and Headquarters Nigerian Air Force, as well as the Principal Staff Officers of the Army Headquarters.
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