Despite the fact that the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration made this possible, President Muhammadu Buhari Friday in Abuja directed the Federal Ministry
of Defence to produce a plan for the establishment of a modest Military
Industrial Complex for the local production of weapons.
The call suggests Nigeria has no means of producing small local arms.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony of the National Defence College,
President Buhari described as unacceptable, Nigeria’s current
over-dependence on other countries for critical military equipment and
logistics.
Ex president Goodluck Jonathan had last year officially opened aballistic armour factory and commissioned Nigeria’s first locally produced armoured personnel carrier, the Igirigi.
Jonathan had commissioned the DICON-Marom factory in Kaduna, which is a public private partnership between the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) and Israel’s Marom Dolphin Nigeria Limited. The factory will manufacture bulletproof vests and other military textiles.
Buhari said “We must evolve viable mechanisms for near-self-sufficiency in military
equipment and logistics production complemented only by very advanced
foreign technologies.
“The Ministry of Defence is being tasked to draw up clear and measurable
outlines for development of a modest Military Industrial Complex for
Nigeria.
“In this regard, it is to liaise with other strategic MDAs and industries
to re-engineer the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) to
meet national military hardware and logistics requirements,” the President
said.
President Buhari told the gathering that his administration had, since
its assumption of office, reviewed the nature and character of Nigeria’s
security threats and challenges.
“We recognized first and foremost, the external dimensions of these
threats and the need for international cooperation and common security