BY AGENCY REPORT, NOVEMBER 4, 2021 | 10:48 PM
The commander, Training and Doctrine Command of the Nigerian Army, Stephen Olabanji, a major general, says the force is expected to commission about 3,885 cadets into the officer’s cadre in 2022.
He also said the army would enlist about 18,000 other ranks and a further special forces training of about 4,800 among those commissioned and other ranks cadre.
Mr Olabanji disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Army to defend its 2022 budget proposal.
He said the essence of the special training is to further give the personnel some specialised training in the aspect of watermanship, deep-diver, airborne and leaving off the land.
He stated that other aspects of the training would be in the areas of target acquisition, tracker, assailing and rappelling, counter terrorism and counter insurgency training, among others.
“These are all geared towards beefing up the personnel strength of the Nigerian Army and further increase her fighting capabilities in order to bring a lasting solution to the insecurity challenges in our country,” Mr Olabanji said.
He said the training command is requesting the sum of N43.3 billion for the year 2022 budget appropriation.
Mr Olabanji, however, said the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning had proposed N26.2 billion for the training command.
He said his prayer was that the sum of N30.8 billion should be approved for the training as against the N25.5 billion in the appropriation bill.
Mr Olabanji also said that N4.9 billion should be approved for the training command for the year 2022 overhead as against N200 million in the appropriation bill.
According to him, the sum of N7.4 billion should be approved for the training command for the 2022 capital projects as against N544 million in the appropriation bill
.“I therefore, humbly request this honourable committee to kindly approve the total sum of N43.3 billion, which covers the personnel emolument, trainees/instructors allowances, capital and overhead,” he said.
He said the training command was committed to training very mobile, dynamic, fierce, gallant and ever ready Nigerian youths into the Nigerian Army who wish to defend the territorial integrity of the country.
Chairman of the Committee, Abdularzaq Namdas, urged the training command to focus on training of officers in counter terrorism considering the security challenge of the country.
Mr Namdas said the National Assembly had passed a resolution, urging President Muhammadu Buhari to designate bandits as terrorists.
He urged the training command to continue to do all the assignment given to it, assuring that the committee will continue to support their quest.
NAN
Conflict Reporting is dangerous and risky. Our reporters constantly face life-threatening challenges, sometimes surviving ambushes, kidnap attempts and attacks by the whiskers as they travel and go into communities to get authentic and firsthand information. But we dare it every day, nonetheless, in order to keep you informed of the true situation of the victims, the trends in the conflicts and ultimately help in peace building processes. But these come at huge cost to us. We are therefore appealing to you to help our cause by donating to us through any of the following means. You can also donate working tools, which are even more primary to our work. We thank you sincerely as you help our cause.
Alternatively, you can also email us on
info@yen.ng or message us
via +234 803 931 7767
