Despite the fact that the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration made this possible, President Muhammadu Buhari Friday in Abuja directed the Federal Ministry<\/p>\n
of Defence to produce a plan for the establishment of a modest Military
\nIndustrial Complex for the local production of weapons.<\/p>\n
The call suggests Nigeria has no means of producing small local arms.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the graduation ceremony of the National Defence College,
\nPresident Buhari described as unacceptable, Nigeria\u2019s current
\nover-dependence on other countries for critical military equipment and
\nlogistics.<\/p>\n
Ex president Goodluck Jonathan had last year officially opened aballistic armour factory and commissioned Nigeria’s first locally produced armoured personnel carrier, the Igirigi.<\/p>\n
Jonathan had\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Buhari said “We must evolve viable mechanisms for near-self-sufficiency in military
\nequipment and logistics production complemented only by very advanced
\nforeign technologies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ministry of Defence is being tasked to draw up clear and measurable
\noutlines for development of a modest Military Industrial Complex for
\nNigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this regard, it is to liaise with other strategic MDAs and industries
\nto re-engineer the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) to
\nmeet national military hardware and logistics requirements,\u201d the President
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
President Buhari told the gathering that his administration had, since
\nits assumption of office, reviewed the nature and character of Nigeria\u2019s
\nsecurity threats and challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognized first and foremost, the external dimensions of these
\nthreats and the need for international cooperation and common security<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n