Nigerian Army former chief, Ihejirika, lists achievements

 

Former Chief of Army Staff (CAS), Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika (Rtd), has listed his achievements while in office to include the increase of the Nigerian Army size by 25 per cent and establishment of the Army Language Institute in Abia State.

Ihejirika, while speaking on the side-line of the 2019 Re-Union and Gala Night of the Nigerian Defence Academy Alumni, 18 Regular Course, in Abuja, said the Army under his watch was able to measure and identify the complexity of the problem facing the nation at that time and took a proactive step to close the gaps.

This, according to him, led to the increase of the strength of the Nigerian Army by 25 per cent within a space of three years, which for him had paid off in filling the gaps created by the several military operations both within and outside the country.

‘‘The most important achievement is that we were able to measure and identify the complexity of the problem.

‘‘We went ahead to quickly increase the strength of the Army as much as 25% within a span of three years and without that, it would have been a major disaster because of several commitments both internally and externally when Nigerian Army was involved in foreign operations.’’

On the Language Institute, the former CAS explained that the idea of establishing the Language School was to give the Nigerian Army capacity to be able to collaborate with its neighbours, Nigeria being a country surrounded by Francophone countries on all sides.

“The plan was that with time, other languages of interest will be taught but it is important to know that since then the Army has gone further to make French language part of requirements for promotion for junior officers. And is a step further to make all officers and soldiers understand the three major languages.”

Ihejirika, whose tenure as army chief saw to the near complete flushing out of the Boko Haram group from the Sambisa Forest, while commending the current CDS and other Service Chiefs for their patriotic duty to the nation, expressed satisfaction that some of the efforts he made while in office have started yielding fruits.

“In an attempt to assert our independence, we came up with the ‘Ikirgim’ armoured tank. Today Nigerian Army is improving on that effort at building aircraft locally.

“In our time we introduced Language Institute but the Army today has further enhanced that idea by making the three major languages compulsory for the junior officers.

“There was also an effort to incorporate that into the language institute programme. Recall that we introduced promotion interview for senior officers in the Nigerian Army and today, it is not just being done by the Army but by all the services,” he added.

He corroborated the Sultan’s position on the setting up of Endowment Fund for the Alumni association. On the issue of health, he said: “it is illness that should bother every retiree and not death.”

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