Chief Of Defence Staff Set To Engage Retired Military Officers On Security Issues

The Nigerian Army has pledged to work with retired senior military officers to find methods to improve and overcome the country’s security concerns.

While speaking at a one-day interactive session with retired senior military officers from the North East zone held at the 23 Armoured Brigade in Yola on Tuesday, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Leo Iraboh, explained that the goal of the parley was to engage retired senior colleagues to cross to exchange ideas on how to best overcome the country’s insecurity situation.

He further explained, “It is part of the reasons I am here with my team: to interact with our retired senior colleagues, to look for holistic solutions about how to bring to an end the insecurity challenges in the region.”

The Chief of Defence Staff believed that as they interacted and engaged with the retired senior military officers, they would be willing to open up to them in areas that would improve security, as well as inform them where they had made mistakes so that they could remedy them.

Gen. Leo Iraboh noted that one of the parley’s main goals was to come up with answers, stating that security is everyone’s concern.

He saw the one-day meeting as an opportunity to reach out to the good people of the north east area, thank them for their support for the Nigerian military, and ask them to contribute more to the peacekeeping effort.

Iraboh believes that the people of the north east hold the key to resolving the region’s persistent security issues.

He believed that the solution to the North East problem will mostly rely on the contributions of persons from the region.

The Chief of Defence Staff also believes that security in the region and Nigeria as a whole will improve in the coming days.

In response to the recent attack on the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) in Kaduna, Irabor remarked that the act was more akin to an armed robbery than banditry.

Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Alli, GOC, 3 Division, had earlier stated that one of the most important aspects of the interactive session was the opportunity to meet with men of proven integrity and experience from the region to discuss the best way forward for the security situation.

He stated that no one is satisfied with the current scenario and that the interactive session will allow them to look at each other and discuss the specific difficulties.

“Because, we believe there are issues that we have not actually viewed in the manner you look at it,” he added.

He stated that being men of proven integrity and experience, the retired military officers have the desire and will to turn around the fortunes of the zone, where everyone of them will be happy.

Alli was represented by Brig.-Gen. Aminu Garba, Commander, 23 Armoured Brigade, Yola.