The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede has tasked participants at the Nigerian Army Doctrine and Training Conference 2025 holding in Minna to propose new ideas on how the Nigerian Army trains and fights.
He expressed optimism that the conference will thoroughly assess Nigeria’s current security and defence environments and critically evaluate the Nigerian Army’s training curriculum.
Lt.Gen. Oluyede gave the task while declaring open the Doctrine and Training Conference for the year 2025 in Minna on Tuesday, January 7, 2025.
Though, he didn’t allude to the fact that Nigerian Army along other sister security agencies have been battling Boko Haram insurgency in the Northern part of the country for the past 16 years, and that even as it degrades the insurgents to the point of surrounding, an influx of Islamic State of West African Province, ISWAP’s, fighters and the emergence of Lakurawa in northwest region compounded the security challenges in recent years.
A statement by Director of Army Public Relations, Major General Onyema Nwachukwu said COAS observed in his address that Nigeria’s current security and defence environments are characterised by both transnational and domestic challenges, including terrorism, insurgency, banditry, farmers-herders conflicts as well as economic crimes related to oil and gas pipeline vandalism, and secessionist agitations among others
He pointed out that in dealing with these challenges, the Nigerian Army has in the past decade continued to prioritise equipment upgrade and manpower boost.
He restated his commitment to vigorously pursuing realistic training, adequate troops’ sustenance, pragmatic equipment procurement and maintenance, stressing that these are critical requirements for combat readiness and operational success in the NA.
He also identified the 4 key pillars of his Command Philosophy as Leadership, Sound Administration, Professionalism, and Combat Readiness, which he said highlight the importance of Doctrine within the Nigerian Army.
The COAS had earlier clarified that the conference offers a veritable platform for in-depth deliberations on the implementation of doctrine and training directives in the Nigerian Army (NA) for year 2025 and beyond.
According to him, the conference is in tandem with the mandate of Training and Doctrine Command Nigerian Army (TRADOC) to lead the effort in shifting the paradigm in personnel training as contained in the Nigerian Army Training Directive 2025.
The COAS noted with satisfaction, the alignment of the conference theme, “Understanding Nigerian Army Doctrine for Effective Training within a Joint Environment” with his Command Philosophy “To Consolidate the Transformation of the Nigerian Army Towards bequeathing a well-motivated and combat-ready force that can effectively discharge its constitutional responsibilities within a Joint and multi-agency environment.”
Delivering his welcome address, the Commander, TRADOC, Maj Gen Kevin Aligbe pointed out that the conference sets the tone for training activities in all Nigerian Army Training Schools and institutions by drawing inspiration from the extant Nigerian Army’s Proactive Responsive Doctrine to guide the training on how troops fight.
He stated that the tailor-made approach to training is to develop the capacity to respond to the multi-faceted and sometimes mutating security challenges the Nigerian Army is tasked to mitigate.
Major General Aligbe harped on the importance of the NA collaborating with sister services and other government security agencies as well as non-governmental stakeholders to secure the country for economic prosperity and development.
After inaugurating the conference, the COAS also took time to interact with troops in Minna Cantonment, where he assured them that their welfare is topmost in the agenda of his command. He guaranteed that he would strive to address the identified challenges within available resources. The COAS urged the troops to give their best by providing adequate security for socio-economic development in the country.
Lieutenant General Oluyede appreciated the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for his strategic guidance in the efforts of the Nigerian Army in synergy with sister services and other security agencies to defeat the nation’s adversaries.