Army, AFRICOM to establish special operation unit – Ihejirika

The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Azubuike Ihejirika, on Wednesday said that the army, in collaboration with the US African Command would establish a Special Operation Unit.

Ihejirika announced this at a seminar on Nigerian Army Transformation in Abuja, adding that the army was expanding in many ways to face the current security challenges.

The COAS said: “We are going to have a standing special operation unit that will transform to a special operation brigade in collaboration with AFRICOM.”

He said the army would also establish an Army Headquarters Reserve Battalion to be known as 101 Battalion.

He said: “We are just putting finishing touches as they have been equipped with 50 per cent of their basic requirements, and their strength is 100 per cent to be lead by a colonel, supported by 25 other officers.”

The army chief said that the army had agreed to set up an Army Virtual War College, as part of its personnel development programme.

He said: “This implies that the students will be electronically linked with other war colleges abroad as they will have periods for live interactions.”

He added that it was discovered that a gap existed in the training system between when an officer passes out from the Armed Force Command and Staff College and the attendance of National Defence University, which is a strategic level course.

“So, we want to train officers who will attain the national operational knowledge to command troops in the field and the course will be meant for lieutenant colonels and young colonels,” he said.

The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba, said transformation was a process of regeneration and reorganising the totality in terms of processes, systems and functions, to make it more efficient in tune with contemporary challenges.

He said the Navy had realised that one of the pillars of such efforts was a very sustainable collaboration and cooperation among the services.

Ezeoba said the navy had built a synergy with other services, particularly the army and the Air Force, to develop capacity that would ensure synergy of efforts and economic resources “so that we can operate more in a joint setting for efficacy of action.

“So, this seminar is in furtherance of the processes so that we can consolidate on the gains so far made so that we can be more efficient and fight as a composite unit in delivering the security challenge of this country.”