By Philip Nwosu
The Nigerian Army has said that salaries of soldiers and officers deployed to theatres of operations across the country will continue to be paid promptly as a way of encouraging them to tackle insurgency.
The Chief of Army Staff, Major General Farouk Yahaya, who gave the assurance, called on officers and men of the force to apply creativity in their approach towards tackling insurgency around the country.
The Army Chief who was represented by the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division Major General Lawrence Fejokwu spoke at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Army Finance Corps’ Warrant Officer/Senior Non-Commissioned training week in Lagos.
He said: “In view of the contemporary security challenges in Nigeria, the Nigerian Army must remain focused, disciplined and professional in dealing with these challenges, especially in a joint environment. Thus, the development and deployment of physical capability will contribute significantly to the defense and security of our nation.
“The Nigerian Army must of necessity be creative and improve its problem-solving skill to be able to defeat all forms of adversaries, particularly non-state actors. To achieve this, the prudent utilization of finance and indeed all resources can never be over-emphasized, especially in the state of building national resources.”
While appraising the theme of the conference, the Chief of Army Staff said the training week is coming at a time when the demand for openness is high, adding that, “For the Nigerian Army to remain competitive in the 21st century, it must continue to develop requisite skills and competencies that would make it ever ready to achieve its constitutional duties.”
In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, the COAS said the theme of the training week was aptly crafted as ‘Repositioning Nigerian Army Finance Corp: Warrant Officers, Senior Non-Commissioned Officers for professional and innovative financial service delivery to the Nigerian Army.”
The COAS explained that “the prudent and efficient use of the public funds also becomes compelling given the anti corruption drive of the Federal Government of Nigeria as well as dwindling national revenue due to the advert effect of global COVID-19 pandemic.
“We need to be more open in managing the scarce resources that are allocated to the Nigerian Army and we need to be more open to justify whatever has been appropriated to us.