The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, has reiterated the Nigerian army's commitment to continue to defend the constitution and not s uspend it for whatever reason and has come to terms with the country's choice of democracy as the preferred system of governance.
"We are therefore agents of democracy and have no desire to truncate it," he said
The COAS made this known today, Tuesday, 5th March 2024 at the Fifth Edition of the Career Planning and Management Seminar for Nigerian Army officers with the theme "Efficient Human Resource Management in the Twenty-First Century: Imperatives for Sustaining a Professional NA in a Joint Environment, organised by the Army Headquarters Department of Military Secretary in Abuja.
While addressing participants at the seminar the army Chief reiterated that the Armed Forces of Nigeria, particularly the Nigerian Army has come to terms with the country’s choice of democracy as the preferred system of governance,” he said during his address to officers.
“Our elected leaders have to lead while the military does its job as enshrined in our constitution. Nigerian Army personnel must therefore remain professional and be above board as they discharge their constitutional duties.”
He therefore charged officers of the Nigerian Army to remain resolute, and above board in the discharge of their professional duties.
On the Fifth Edition of the Career Planning and Management Seminar for Nigerian Army officers, General Lagbaja noted that the seminars of this nature are important because the officer corps of any army is crucial to its professional development.
He said, the officers' corps constitute the bedrock of an army's professionalism, and sound administration of the officers' corpsis critical to what becomes of any military. Because officers' career planning and management are crucial constituents of sound administration, which by the way is one of the pillars of my command philosophy, this seminar has been carefully designed to expose participants to human resource management in an increasingly complex setting like the Nigerian Army.
"You will agree that a lot has changed in the Nigerian Army in the past decade regarding recruitment drive and personnel administration in response to the security dynamics in Nigeria's internal and external environments. The Army has witnessed significant manpower growth in both the officers and ranks and file cadres.
"This growth underscored the need for a more efficient manpower management system and policy adjustments. Ideas about one such policy shift brought about the institution of promotion examinations and junior and senior courses equivalents for Direct Regular Combatant Commission officers. It is quite instructive to note that this important shift came out of seminars and brainstorming sessions such as the one we have gathered here to undertake." he added
He commended the Military Secretary (Army) and the entire Department for organising the Seminar and going the extra mile to bring together calibre of resource persons. "I must draw attention to the fact that the Department has done much over the years to digitize officers' records in line with the modern trend in Human Resource management. I wish to further challenge the Military Secretary's office to leverage the competencies that have been developed within the Army and beyond to digitize the existing PER and seniority roll system in a manner that would reduce or eliminate paper use.
The COAS challenged the Department of Military Secretary to work with relevant NA departments and establishments to develop concepts for digitizing our PER system and possibly launch a test run with the 2024 reporting year.
He therefore thanked the resource persons, particularly the CFR immediate past COAS, Lt Gen F Yahaya (rtd), NAM, Maj Gen M Efeovbokhan (rtd) and Brig Gen GG Shipi (rtd), for accepting to share knowledge and experience with participants at this seminar. He also appreciated Professor Tajudeen Akanji from the University of Ibadan and Professor Bilkisu Kabir Usman Farouk from the Nigerian Defence Academy for agreeing to identify with the Nigerian Army at this seminar.
" I salute the past Military Secretaries (Army) for their steadfastness in associating with the Department of Military Secretary. I urge participants to maximize the opportunities the seminar presents for personal and professional growth and to ensure that the knowledge acquired from this Seminar is correctly communicated to their establishments."
SpyeTV News had reported that, on the 22nd of February, 2024 the Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, warned those calling for coup a due to the current economic hardship in the country to desist from their evil plans. He warned that the law will come for those calling for a coup in the country over the current economic realities.
General Musa spoke when he visited HeadqHeadquartersivision, as part his routine operational visit to the Niger Delta Region (NDR), where he commended the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the Division and personnel of the Division for the gaint strides achieved so far and after inaugurating the main entrance of the 6 Division, Nigerian Army and Officers Transit Accommodation, at the Division Headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The Defence Chief assured of the Armed Forces Nigers commitment towards the sustenance of democracy in Nigeria.
General Musa said: “Whoever is making that call (coup) does not love Nigeria. We want to make it very clear that the Armed Forces of Nigeria are here to protect democracy.
“We all want democracy and we do better under democracy. And so we will continue to support democracy. And any of those ones that are calling for anything other than democracy are evil people and I think they don’t mean well for Nigeria.
“And they should be very careful because the law will come after them. We can see that with democracy a lot of things are happening in Nigeria. Yes, we are going through trying periods, I mean in life nothing is hundred per cent.”
The call for Coup regenerated when at least seven military takeovers in the last four years in countries like Mali, Guinea, Chad, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and most recently, Niger Republic
Nigerian military stood its ground to neutralise any call for military take over by some unpatriotic Nigerians.