Insurgency: Science Ministry partners Airforce on security

By Pauk Efiong

The Federal Ministry of Science is to collaborate with the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on research and innovations to produce military needs locally so as to counter insurgency and other security challenges in the country.
The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu disclosed this when the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubaker paid him a courtesy call in Abuja.
According to Dr. Onu,” a committee will be set up to look at areas of interest and targets to enable us focus our research to meet the national needs and redirect our effort to produce those needs”.
“We want our Military to start to look inward because we can never be at the top if we keep relying on others, we will always be behind because those nations will not give you their best’’ he added.
A statement signed by Edet E. Etuk, Assistant Chief Information Officer.
For Head: Press and Public Relations in the ministry, said Dr Onu stressed that “We will channel the best brains we have to those problems to help us develop a system so that in future other people will be coming to Nigeria to ask for our assistance. That is what we want, we cannot keep going outside always depending on others countries,”.
He assured the NAF that all the facilities in the Ministry and the Agencies will be made available to meet her needs and that of the nation. Dr Onu commended the leadership of NAF on the level of stabilization it has achieve within the past three years because according to him combating insurgency is a very unusual form of warfare.
Earlier, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubaker, said that NAF has already entered into MOU with 15 Nigerian Universities and is also working closely with a number of both public and private research and development institutions.
He commended the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu for making Nigeria to believe that we have the capacity to build a great Nigeria and what is required of us is to identify those areas of competence and mobilize our people to face the challenges.
Air Marshal Abubakar added the Nigerian Air Force is committed to making utilizing every capacity we have in this country to support the Air service in terms of maintenance, communication and other things that is required as incentives in the Force.