Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, has stressed the importance of joint operations among the nation’s armed forces towards achieving effectiveness in counter-insurgency, anti-banditry and other security operations across the country.
Irabor stated this while delivering the graduation lecture for participants of Army War College Nigeria (AWCN) Course 5-2021, titled, “Enhancing Jointness in Operations in the Armed Forces of Nigeria; My Perspective” on Tuesday, in Abuja.
He said that no single arm of the military had been able to single handedly and successfully prosecute wars and win anywhere in the world, hence the need for operational ‘jointness’ among the services.
According to him, the times we are in are quite challenging given the myriad of security challenges that confront us and the internal nature of these operations to which the military has become the frontline institution of state to manage internal security issues.
“The forms and shapes with which these wars are prosecuted by states continues to evolve and have substantially being defined by technological change.
“While future military campaigns may be conducted in a manner that differ from today, most security challenges requiring military interventions have been better ameliorated through joint operations.
“With the realisation that no single service could conduct war efficiently and successfully, many nations’ armed forces are today tutored, trained and equipped to operate jointly and in some cases, in combination with armed forces of other states,” he said.
Irabor disclosed that the lecture centred on enhancing joint operations planning and what would galvanise the coming together of the services for a common goal of meeting operational objectives.
According to him, it is a lecture that seeks to bring about meeting of the minds for us to work together and keep enhancing effectiveness in that regard.
The Commandant, AWCN, Maj.-Gen. Solomon Uduonwa, said the Course 5/2021 comprising 63 officers from three services, five agencies and five countries including Nigeria was formerly inaugurated on April 9 and ran for 34 weeks.
Uduonwa said the course participants had explored through a well packaged and delivered modules, different concepts and options that would assist to build the desired integrative national strategy to combat contemporary and future threats to our nation, continent and the world.
He said that a major part of the academic discourse for Course 5 was centered on enhancing ‘jointness’ in Nigerian armed forces.
According to him,, jointness amongst the three services is highly imperative to fostering comprehensive approach to national security in our nation.
