Ime Akpan
A ministerial nominee of the president, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi has said that the Nigerian Armed Forces are short of the required manpower hence their seeming helplessness in tackling insecurity.
The armed forces include the Nigerian Army, which is the land branch, Nigerian Air Force (NAF) which is the air transport unit and the Nigerian Navy (NN) which is the sea branch of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
Magashi who spoke while fielding questions from senators during his screening session in Abuja yesterday said the Armed Forces’ operational capabilities have been overstretched that it might be suffering from a manpower issue.
“The theatre of war, I think we civilians encourage it because every day you find that one problem has arisen and then you need troops to cover that area.
“We’ve almost disseminated all our forces, and I don’t think the current structure is the true reflection of our manpower requirement in this country.
“We’re only having divisions probably by name but I don’t think they have the required manpower to manage,” he said.
Magashi also noted that the division in the command structure of the Armed Forces is a problem that needs to be resolved imminently.
“Service chiefs don’t have a cordial relationship and are too invested in showing the individual capabilities of their own forces rather than coordinating with others,” he added.
He frowned at the manner operations are conducted single-handedly by a service and not combined operations of other services.
He promised to implement a restructuring of the command structure if appointed the minister of defence.
“Today, the service chiefs are trying to express their capabilities to the people who don’t know the operational concept of troops.
“The Act that provided for all these chiefs, I assure you, we’ll do our best to ensure a restructuring.
“Whatever can be possible for us to do, we’ll do it for the interest of the troops themselves. And then to secure our country properly with minimum cost,” he said.
Asked how he will deal with the resurgence of terrorist group, Boko Haram, Magashi said he will keep troops motivated.
“What I’ll do differently is to ensure that rules are obeyed, procedures are followed, welfare is maintained, and every other thing that’ll make troops happy and motivated to perform,” he said.
