... As Army War Collège Nigeria Holds Graduation Lecture For Participants Course 7/2023
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt General Taoreed Lagbaja has charged participants of Army War College Nigeria, Course 7/2023 who are Operational Level Leaders on the need to further research on National Culture, and Protection of Critical National Asset and Infrastructure, and how government apportion resources to the protection of these critical national infrastructure and as well as to evaluate them to get designed attention to enhance their qualities.
The army Chief gave the charge today, Tuesday 3rd October 2023 at the graduation lecture of Army War Collège Nigeria Course 7/2023 at the College Headquarters in Abuja.
Lt General Taoreed Lagbaja urged participants who will be going to the field, to drive strategies, polices in various services, ministries, departments and agencies to research on protection of critical national infrastructure, which is key, as it is the driver of the National Wealth and assets.
He said the of issue of response mechanism and the need for government to invest more on the response mechanism like the Combat enablers like Gun Truck, arms and ammunition and the equipment of personnel to protect these critical infrastructure .
"If the Constitution has charged the NSCDC and the Police to protect on these infrastructure then there is need for government to invest in these agencies to be able to discharged these responsibilities." he noted
He called on government to audit these critical national infrastructure and other assets, such as the railway and oil and gas infrastructure, and to improve the quality of pipeline which are old and deployed the use of technology. He advise government to lay new pipeline by replacing the old with new to compete with international standard.
Earlier, the Guest Lecturer, Former Chief of Army Staff, Retired Lt General AB Dambazau during his lecture titled "Coordinating Mechanism For the Effective Protection of Critical National Asset and Infrastructural in Nigeria" gave three most important Nigeria's core assets, that is POPULATION, LAND, and OIL and GAS which must be protected by all means.
"Population, like the military, is a source of national strength. Protecting over 200 million people in 774 LGAs, and unaccounted number of rural settlements is a real challenge." he said
Retired Lt General AB Dambazau said, Nigeria among the fastest growing population in the world, projected to be over 400 million by 2050. Ensuring that the population has the necessary infrastructure to absorb it and provide its needs, is itself a guarantee for protection, convert the population into human capital requires health, education, social, economic, and environmental protection.
He addressed the most important Nigeria's economic asset, which is the oil and gas sector, but he said its infrastructure is very weak; the crude oil cannot be refined in Nigeria, and the bulk of the gas is flared instead of converting it for domestic use.
According to him, Nigeria's crude oil is vulnerable to theft, and the pipelines to vandalism. Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) revealed a loss of 619.7 million barrels of crude valued at N16.25 trillion ($46.16 billion) to crude oil theft between 2009-2020.
"Most of Nigeria's critical assets and infrastructure are vulnerable to attacks, vandalism, theft, mismanagement, and abuse, while others are dysfunctional due to negligence and/or corruption. "he noted
SpyeTV News reports that Retired Lt General AB Dambazau highlighted the threats facing critical national assets and infrastructure which are in two phrases, Internal/Institutional, and External threats. The Internal/Institutional are; Corruption, Leadership, Funding, Negligence, Training, and Indiscipline. While the External threats are; Terrorism, Banditry, Militancy Disasters Riots, Vandalism, Theft and Pilferage, and Sabotage.
He addressed various mechanism for the protection of Critical assets and the role of the armed forces of Nigeria, sister security agencies, and other ministries, departments and agencies in the protection of our country's critical national assets.
His lecture has enlightened participants of Course 7/2023 on operational level command responsibilities in the protection of Critical National Asset and Infrastructure.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, the Commandant Army War Collège Nigeria, Major General Ishaya Buba Maina said recall that the guest lecture as a former Chief of Army Staff and subsequently minister of interior played a major role in coordinating all the security agencies responsible for protecting critical national asset and infrastructure in Nigeria which enhance National security and development.
The graduation lecture is the first of three graduation activities for Course 7/2023 of the AWCN which will climax with the graduation ceremony on Friday 6th October 2023.
