We will not let Nigerians down in combating threats to national security – COAS
Lt.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya said that the exercise was the first of its kind, where all combat arms and combat support arms of the Nigerian Army Training Schools come together for a final joint training exercise.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya, has assured Nigerians that the Nigerian Army will not fail in delivering on its constitutional responsibility in mitigating threats to national security.
Yahaya gave the assurance while addressing troops at the firepower demonstration phase of Exercise Mugun Bugu on Friday at Kontagora, Niger State.
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, made this known in a statement on Friday in Abuja.
The COAS said that the army would continue to uphold its mandate to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation, as well as provide support to civil authority.
He said that the exercise was the first of its kind, where all combat arms and combat support arms of the Nigerian Army Training Schools come together for a final joint training exercise.
Yahaya reiterated that training was key to professionalism, which is one of the pillars of his philosophy of command.
According to him, it is only through training that troops could internalize, practice, and perfect the employment of skills and competences, along with the requisite equipment, communication, and other enablers for the effective conduct of operations and discharge of the constitutional mandate of the Nigerian army.
The army chief said the combined exercise would ensure effective and result-oriented training that would incorporate multimodal training activities aimed at tackling contemporary security challenges as well as eclipsing threats that may arise in the future.
He therefore urged the troops to put lessons learned from the exercise into practice in their respective formations and units as they tackled threats to national security.
Also speaking, the Commander Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), Maj.-Gen. Stevenson Olabanji, said the command would continue to engage in training activities geared towards supporting the army to actualize its drive for a professional and responsive army.