The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Faruk Yahaya on Monday inaugurated the newly built Nigerian Army Operations Centre with state of the art facilities that enables it to serve the 3 fold functions of a Command Centre, a situation room and an operations briefing facility.
Giving a brief of the capability of the new Centre, the Chief of Operations, Nigerian Army, Major General OT Akinjobi said, “It will afford the Army headquarters the enhanced reach and the ability to quickly intervene, direct and influence ongoing operations.
“From the Centre, the Army Headquarters would have a common operational picture with commanders in the field. More importantly, the facility is scalable and can therefore accommodate further add-ons as the Nigerian Army continues to embrace the technologies of the times with a view to better performing her constitutional roles in line with the COAS’ Vision of “A Professional Nigerian Army Ready to Accomplish Assigned Missions within a Joint Environment in Defence of Nigeria”.
“In this light, live feeds from drones and other information [email protected] ke technology equipment can be viewed from the Centre. Equally, the facility has the capability to interface with related assets of the other Services for optimal joint operations.
“Furthermore, the Nigerian Army Operations Centre is equipped with adequately resourced work-stations for dedicated desk officers for all current and future operations.
“These desk officers would be expected to string together occurrences in each Theatre in order to develop an overarching picture of the generalized operating environment for needed Army Headquarters directives.
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Major Gen Akinjobi recalled that the idea of having a befitting Operation Centre for the Nigerian Army was conceived by His Excellency, Lieutenant General TY Buratai (Rtd), the Nigerian Ambassador to the Benin Republic at the twilight of his tenure as the Chief of Army Staff noting that the intention was to have an appropriate facility that could provide the Army Headquarters with real time situational awareness on all operational activities across operational theatres where our troops are deployed.
He said, “This was necessitated by the growing involvement of the Nigerian Army in a plethora of operations across the country and the need to have greater situational awareness so as to better influence them. The Centre is therefore one of the numerous legacy and enduring projects initiated by Lieutenant General TY Buratai all across the Nigerian Army.
“On assumption of the Office, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Farouk Yahaya, aptly prioritized the completion of the project. This was in realization of the growing importance of technology to military operations and the need to adequately leverage same to improve the operational picture of Army Headquarters vis a vis ongoing operations. In this stead, further improvements were made to the facilities being installed and the main hall was appropriately remodeled for optimal display, interactions and utilization.
“In addition, the Centre has the needed support offices including one for the Chief of Army Staff in the event of exigencies requiring his prolonged stay at the Operations Centre. The Centre is thus well suited to ensure that Army Headquarters has close to the same operational picture as the formations with a view to providing greater guidance for the Army’s operational activities.
Akinjobi acknowledged the sterling efforts of the Commander, Cyber Warfare Command, Major General Abubakar Adamu, who was at the centre of the soft and hardware installations in the facility noting that the senior officer acted proactively throughout from his official capacity deploying a whole range of competences to drive the completion of the first phase of the installations.
Speaking during the ceremony, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Republic of Benin, Lt. Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai (rtd), expressed joy that the construction of the operations Centre was completed in record time saying it is an indication that the Nigerian Army is a very serious organization, a professional organization bent on doing its utmost to actualize its mandate and achieve set goals.
“I must say it is a first class edifice with an excellent finish and for this I must commend the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Faruk Yahaya”.
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