The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal, Sadiq Abubakar, says the synergy between security agencies has helped to substantially reduce the security challenges in the country from what it was five years ago.
Abubakar also said the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is undergoing a lot of transformation through capacity building in all aspects, to meet the security challenges of the country.
The Air Chief spoke with newsmen in Jaji, Kaduna State, after a lecture he delivered to students of Senior Course 43 at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College.
“If there was no synergy all these years, we would have ended up bombing our people, and there was no single incident of such, that clearly means we are synergizing
“We are understanding what the overall objective is and we are working towards ensuring that we achieve that objective, which is to ensure that Nigeria is secured.
“Looking at where we are coming from in the beginning of 2015 where bombs were exploding everywhere, I think with every sense of humility, we have made some substantial progress.
“There are still issues that have emerged like banditry and many others which we are equally working round the clock to ensure we address for the security of Nigeria and Nigerians,” the CAS said.
On the lecture, Abubakar said that it was to interact with the students who are the future of the Nigerian Air Force and future of the air wings.
“I have discussed a number of issues, some of which we have started to address; issues like utilising the space, among others; it is quite an exciting outing for me,” he said.
According to him, the emphasis he gave to acquisition of knowledge by NAF personnel was in recognition of the importance of knowledge to the success of air operations.
“The value of any human being is substantially determined by how much he or she knows, that is why in my vision, I talked about capacity building, how much you are useful to your society or to your nation.
“This is substantially a function of how much knowledge you have; the 21st century is a knowledge driven century and you cannot function without it, that is the main thing I passed to the senior officers.
“They must ensure they have a clear picture of what is happening, they must read, interact, compare notes with others, that is the only way they can move forward.
“They must also try to look inwards in terms of being able to produce some of these things like the way research and development is conducted in the Nigerian Air Force,” he said.
Abubakar stressed that the whole idea was to lay a foundation where officers could take over seamlessly, and believe in themselves that they have what it takes to solve some of the issues without necessarily irritating their partners.
“While thanking our partners, we really need to look inward, which we have been doing in the Air force and even at the tri-service level in the defence headquarters.
“We have the research and development bureau that is working in collaboration with the services to ensure that we are able to address some of our air maintenance challenges,” Abubakar said.
He noted that the questions raised during the lecture, showed the commitment and patriotism of the officers and their willingness to work hard and ensure that Nigeria is secured.
The Air Chief delivered lecture on the ‘Future of Air warfare in the Nigerian Air Force’.
