Army Resource Centre Partners With Academy For National Security Discussion

The event will be held in Abuja from Monday, June 24th to Tuesday 25th, 2024.

The Executive Director, DSA, Professor Okey Ikechukwu disclosed this at a pre-event briefing session with the media at the Army Resource Centre, Abuja Nigeria.

The event according to him “is designed as a third-Party initiative aimed at distilling and presenting Implementable Action Points (IAPs) on pressing asymmetrical national security challenges.”

The challenges as highlighted by him include embedded targets, refusal to help the army and other security agencies with local intelligence, targeting of military personnel for hostile civilian attention, unproductive community engagements, and deliberate misrepresentation of the activities and achievements of the Nigerian Army through fake news and misinformation.

Professor Okey said “the RoundTable seeks to drive a new narrative by getting Nigeria’s various publics to see and understand their roles in the wider national ecosystem of synchronised security.”

The Professor of Strategic Management and Human Capital Development stressed that the event would also showcase facts-based reviews of current asymmetrical national security challenges and the achievements of the Nigerian Army in that regard.

He said; “It will also project National Interest Communication without Propaganda (NIC–P) and hopefully metamorphose into a platform for regular updates on the efforts of the Nigerian Army and the national security apparatus.

“From our pre-event investigations, surveys and consultations for this RoundTable, it became clear that more and more Nigerians see and treat national security problems that are threatening their very lives as purely the business of the military and, especially, the Army”

“This should address the emerging challenges and deliberate misrepresentations of our men in uniform as objectively as possible.”

The Director General Nigerian Army Resource Centre, Major General Ayodeji Wahab (Rtd), while fielding questions from journalists at the event emphasised the importance of localising security issues.

He said; “What we are asking those in government to do is to find a way of ensuring that the judiciary and local government are allowed to function well. When you allow local government to function, then you can localise the security architecture.

“We should go to the battalion level because these battalions serve the state and so they relate with the state and local government. We shouldn’t wait till we get to divisional headquarters whenever there is a problem. Divisional headquarters in most cases busy attending to five or six States.”

The scheduled event will bring together experts from various interests fields to promote public understanding of the roles and achievements of the Nigerian Army in national security efforts and provide a platform for regular updates on their activities.

Mercy Chukwudiebere