NASS will help Nigeria become Africa’s military power house

The House of Representatives Committee on Defence, says the 9th National Assembly will work towards turning Nigeria into a military powerhouse in Africa.

The Committee Chairman, Mr Babajimi Benson, said during an oversight visit of the committee to the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC) Jaji, Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), in Kaduna on Monday.

“The 9th assembly has for the first time put the military in its agenda.

“One of the things we put is to encourage homegrown production of military hardware and software.

“We at the 9th assembly want to prioritize the armed forces because a peaceful country is a wealthy country.”

Benson explained that the visitation was to assess how far the taxpayers’ money has been judiciously utilized by the commands, adding that the committee was pleased with what it saw in the various institutions.

“Today we are here and we have seen outstanding feat by the Nigerian army.

“They created MRAP they named after it Ezugwu who created it as a serving Major General.

“We have started manufacturing and producing them locally, and definitely we are in right projection.”

The committee chairman assured that the NASS will push for the to release of funds appropriated to all defence institutions and formations to enable them to execute new projects and complete ongoing ones.

Benson acknowledged the development being achieved in the institutions and pledged that more funds would be appropriated for effective training and retraining of military personnel.

Earlier, the Commandants, AFCSC, AVM Lawal Alao and NDA, Maj.-Gen, Jamil Sarham, as well as the Director-General DICON, Maj.-Gen. Victor Ezugwu told the committee that the money budgeted for them was judiciously used.

They urged the committee for more funds to complete ongoing projects, training, innovations and researches.

The committee inspected completed and the ongoing projects at the three military institutions.