The Chief of Defence Staff General Lucky Irabor on Tuesday has stressed the need for the war colleges, that is, the Army, Navy and Air Force war Colleges of Nigeria to always come in handy in developing plans and strategies that would enable optimization of available resources towards achieving national military objectives.
General Irabor gave this assertion while declaring open as the Special Guest of Honour, the second edition of the Joint Operation Planning Exercise for the Services war colleges, Exercise SKY LOCK 2022 in Abuja.
According to General Irabor, it is important and gratifying that the war colleges are sustaining the ideals of Joint Operation Planning Exercises. This will surely institutionalize a culture of joint planning, training and collective efforts in security operations.
He said, the military is currently engaged in internal security operations in most of the 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT. This has put strain on available resources committed to ongoing CTCOIN operations in the North East and indeed other parts of the country.
The CDS said, the second edition of the JOPEX exercise which is built around contemporary, realistic and real-time security events in Nigeria and beyond marks the culmination of several months of significant efforts made towards developing the skills of participants of the 3 war colleges in operational art, operational design and decision-making process, amongst others.
"It is certainly another milestone in the professional military education trajectory of the Nigerian military in the quest to properly equip our officers for present and future assignments.
"The product of this Joint Operations Planning Exercise will form part of the military strategic decisions for some ongoing and future operations. This underscores the significance of this exercise and the resources committed to its actualization", he said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Commandant Army War College Nigeria Major General Bamidele Alabi noted that the conduct of this second Joint Operations Planning Exercise is one of the milestones to promote understanding and collaboration not only between the Colleges but also to enhance jointness in our armed forces as a whole.
General Alabi reiterated that the conduct of the Joint Operations Planning Exercises for two consecutive years indeed underscores Chief of Defence Staff efforts to promote jointness within the armed forces and with other security agencies and in line with the vision of the Chief of Defence Staff, participants of the Colleges could benefit more through deliberate efforts to promote joint academic activities amongst the Colleges.
He enjoined the 112 participants, comprising of 73 from Nigerian Army, 22 from Nigerian Navy. 17 from Nigerian Air Force and from allied countries like Cameroon, Congo Brazaville, Uganda and Others to devote themselves to the exercise as they stand to benefit from their interactions with other participants while seeking viable options for the employment of land, maritime and air power in a joint environment to solve problems brought out during the exercise. He hoped that at the end of the Joint Operations Planning Exercise 2022, the exercise objectives will not only have been attained but also its lessons imbibed by all.
The highlight of the Joint Operation Planning Exercise for the Services War Colleges, Exercise SKY LOCK 2022 was delivered by Director of Studies and Deputy Commandant, Brigadier General UM Alkali, while there were presentation of souvenirs to Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, CDTOP and Other Invited guests.