Insurgency Army establishes another (8th) Division in Northern Borno. ***New Division also to be established in South-South Region.

Insurgency Army establishes another (8th) Division in Northern Borno.
***New Division also to be established in South-South Region.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai yesterday declared the establishment of a new Army Division for the Nigerian Army (8 division) with headquarters located in the northern part of Borno.

The army Chief made the disclosure just as he noted that plans were afoot to establish a new army division ion the South-South part of the country (6 division), where the 82 division in Enugu and 2 division in Ibadan have been supervising military affairs.

Additionally, Buratai disclosed that the Nigerian Army planned to increase its personnel strength from its present 100,000 strength-force to slightly above 200,000 in the next eight years.
The new division is expected to cater for the Northern part of the country that borders the Lake Chad region where hordes of recruited Boko Haram terrorists have been having easy access into the North East to perpetrate dastardly acts of mayhem and suicide killings.

Giving further insight during lecture titled `Nigerian Army: Challenges and Future Perspectives’, at the National Defence College, Abuja, Buratai said the establishment of the new division was part of strategic plan by the army to boost military operations against terrorists particularly in areas around the Lake Chad Basin.

Recall that the Nigerian Army under the Command of Lt. General Onyeabor Azubuike Ihejirika (rtd) in August 2013 established the 7th Infantry Division in Maiduguri to boost the military’s counter-insurgency operation in the North-East.

The action at the time followed observation that the 3rd armoured division and the 1st infantry division located in both Jos and Kaduna which hitherto supervised the North East became too remote from the area of operation to rid the zone of Boko Haram terrorists.

Though details of the new establishment were not disclosed, Buratai said the division would soon become fully operational with logistics and manpower deployments.

Buratai explained that the establishment of the new divisions was part of a strategic plan to improve on the Nigerian Army’s operational capabilities in the face of emerging threats to national security adding that establishment of the additional formations would bring the number of divisions in the Nigerian Army to eight.

His words, “Emerging threats to the security of our nation which has been aggravated by the proliferation of armed groups has added to the task of the military in protecting the lives of Nigerians and the integrity of its territory.

“The focus of the Nigerian Army, today, is to find lasting solutions to these contemporary threats posed by the activities of the armed groups and their allies.

“The Nigerian Army therefore remains poised to the extermination of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria; today, they can no longer hold any territory as it used to be in the past that is why they have resorted to the use of IEDs to hit soft targets.

“We have established the 8 division located in the northern part of Borno specifically to clear the area of the remaining terrorists elements while another division, 6 Division, will be established in the South-South”.

Buratai said the army would embark on an ambitious expansion programme to address manpower needs of the force to respond appropriately to contemporary threats to national security.

He said that as part of its expansion, 12,000 personnel would be recruited in 2016 alone to fill the vacancies created as a result of the new establishments in the army.

He said the army’s expansion programme was aimed at boosting its response capacity while stressing that its capabilities to effectively deal with its present challenges were however not in doubt.

Continuing, the Army Chief noted that contemporary national security needs and Nigeria’s territorial size required more than the army presently had in terms of personnel strength.

He said the citing of the Special Forces Training Centre in Buni Yadi in Yobe, one of the theatres of the Boko Haram war, was an indication of the army’s determination to end insurgency.

Buratai identified Nigeria’s weak industrial base, the effect of climate change on the environment and Nigeria’s porous borders as some of the factors fuelling armed conflict in Nigeria.

Commandant of the National Defence College, Rear Admiral Samuel Alade in his speech said Buratai’s presentation would be invaluable to the strategic plan of the Armed Forces.

He said participants of the National Defence College’s strategic leadership course would draw valuable lessons from the experience shared by the army chief.
END.