Sola Ojo, Kaduna
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Tukur Buratai, yesterday, tasked the 306 Regimented Sergeant Majors (RSMs), who are currently attending a week-long convention in Kaduna to embrace information and communication technology (ICT), so that they could be digital officers.
This year’s RSMs’ convention, which commenced on Tuesday August 20, would run till August 25. The event being hosted by 1 Division Nigerian Army has it theme as, “Professionalism through Regimentation in Nigerian Army.”
Declaring the convention open, the COAS restated the readiness of the Nigerian Army to discharge its statutory responsibilities, hence, the need for all manners of capacity building trainings to guarantee responsive and responsible army.
According to him, “Over the years, we have always discussed regimentation in different context. But, today, we are discussing regimentation in modern terms. With the theme, ‘Enhancing Professionalism through Regimentation in the Nigerian Army,’ there is no much difference in regimentation that we have in practice over the years.
“What I will like to tell you right now is that things have changed, and as such, as RSMs, you must also change with time. To change with time, you need information communication technology (ICT).
“You also need the influence of social media, which are key nowadays in our regimentation. So, you must embrace ICT; you must embrace the urge to be digital. I expect you all digital and no longer analogue.”
The army boss also added: “Because of our involvement in internal security operations, we come into contact with our brothers and sisters from different parts of the country. We have introduced language learning to enhance and activate our language policy, which has been in existence for a long time.
“We have not taken any bold step to ensure its implementation. We have so far ensured that this language policy comes alive and we have trained up to 1,000 officers to learn two of the three Nigerian major languages and this is still ongoing,” he said.
Earlier, the General Officer Commanding, 1 Div, Major General Faruq Yahaya, thanked the COAS and President Muhammadu Buhari for their untiring support to the Nigerian Army in its effort to tackle the security challenges across the country.
In his remarks, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, who spoke through his commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, commended the army for helping to tackle security challenges in the state.