CDS harps on local tech for effective security
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Gabriel Olonisakin, yesterday highlighted the importance of deploying local technology in handling security challenges, including the Boko Haram menace.
Speaking at the Nigerian Air Force Research and Developmentý Seminar 2015 in Kaduna, the defence chief reiterated the Nigerian military’s effort at tackling security challenges particularly in the North-east and South-south.
He stressed that the country was endowed with many professionals who are contributing extensively to technology elsewhere in the world and lamented the lack of local synergy which he said had been primarily responsible for the low level of technological and industrial standing of the country.
The CDS told newsmen shortly after the event: “There must be collaboration among the military, academia and of course technocrats and industrialists to harness our various endowments to push Nigeria forward technologically.”
“Presently we don’t have the wherewithal, that is why we are encouraging research and development so that we can be self reliant in our production and in no distance future we will get there. We will reach out to local manufacturers to make sure that we inculcate them into the whole arrangement. We are winning the war against ýinsurgency and we will keep doing that, we are working within the timeline and we have our mandate and we are working within our mandate.
ý“Funding is usually an issue you have in any project, but if you are determined and focused, you will get along, research and development is not a one day issue, it is a gradual issue so as the funds come in we will begin to improve on which ever project we are into”, he said.
Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, said ýhomebased technology is a sure way to acquire some degree of immunity from the vagaries of international politics of economy and defence.
“To achieve home-based technological independence, nations have created the enabling environment for research-based collaboration between the military and the civilian sectors. These efforts have yielded fruitful results ranging from the production of the atomic bomb through the “Manhattan Project”, to the discovery of the Global Positioning System (GPS) from the NAVSTAR Project”, he said.
Kaduna State Governor Malam Nasir El-Rufai who was represented by his deputy, Architect Barnabas Bala Bantex, commended military exploits in the North-east and efforts against cattle rustling in the North-west. He assured of his government’s support ýin the fight against all forms of criminality in the state and the nation.