Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) Weekly Subject Experts’ Presentation was held at Hall C, TY Buratai Block, and Abuja. There were two presentations made by the Subject Experts on Easternmost Europe.
The first presentation was made by Brig Gen MF Babayo subject expert for Nigeria. His presentation focus on Vice President Kashim Shettima Represents Tinubu at 3rd belt and road forum in China. The Vice President Kashim Shettima represented President Bola Tinubu at the 3rd BR forum in Beijing, China, from 16 -18 October 2023. Globally, governments enter into bilateral and multilateral arrangements by forming institutions for International Cooperation, political and economic development. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is part of the Chinese new diplomacy which explicitly involves global inclusiveness and eases the process of international trade. The forum is a platform for working out action plans for implementation of the initiative in the areas of infrastructure, energy, resources, production capacity, trade and investment. The BRI is the largest project of the century which involves building a network of railways and shipping lanes linking itself with more than 70 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The ultimate goal of the project is to connect the whole of the world to China, which will mark the ascension of China as a global force. Nigeria officially joined the BRI in 2018 at Beijing Summit on China-Africa Cooperation.
In his analysis and Lessons for Nigeria, Gen MF Babayo pointed out that According to the World Bank, the BRI aims is to strengthen infrastructure, trade, and investment links between China and dozens of other countries that collectively account for over 30 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 62 percent of the world’s population, and 75 percent of known energy reserves. China trade volume with member countries of BRI has exceeded 6 trillion dollars investments and has created nearly 300,000 development opportunities to some countries. The BRI has become the world’s best-known development initiative and immediately attracted close attention from all over the world. It seeks to promote an efficient flow of materials and deep integration of markets to achieve diversified, balanced, mutually beneficial, and sustainable development. The BRI represents a potentially large-scale infrastructural investment in Nigeria, in the areas of railways, roads, bridges, airports, dams and coal-fired power stations.
The second
presentation was made by Brig Gen AK Egwuagu (rtd) mni subject expert for Eastern Europe. His presentation focus on Russia overwhelms Ukrainian Defences with most Complex aerial tactics in Southern Region. On 21st October 2023, Ukraine alleged that Russian military units had started using complex aerial tactics to strike targets in the southern region of Ukraine. According to Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command spokesperson, Natalia Humenuik, the primary focus of Russian forces has transitioned to aerial operations. She explained that Russian military units were utilizing an array of weaponry including surface-to-surface missiles, anti-aircraft missiles and precision-guided aerial munitions to target areas both along the frontlines and in more distant locations. She pointed out that the simultaneous firing of precision-guided aerial bombs and cruise missiles had not been witnessed before and that Russian forces were deploying attack drones with the aim of overwhelming the air defence systems. The Ukrainian spokesperson added that a rocket attack on the same day claimed one man’s life and left a woman injured, and that the Russian forces had incorporated guided aerial bombs into their operations in the on-going conflict near the frontline town of Avdiika in Donestk Oblast.
In his analysis and Lessons for Nigeria, Gen AK Egwuagu noted that War is an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will, hence the enemy must be subdued and rendered powerless. War must be decisive and the ultimate purpose of war is the destruction of the enemy’s ability and will to fight and for us to win. War is costly in human and material resources and must therefore be well-planned, taking into consideration the readiness to fight by training adequately with the required equipment, logistics, intelligence and good aim. The Boko Haram crisis has consumed over 350,000 lives in Nigeria, including those who died from food insecurity, poverty, lack of healthcare and other disasters while about 2.4 million Nigerians are internally displaced and 9.3 million people needing humanitarian assistance to survive across the north eastern region alone. The Nigerian military could learn from this, following her consistent loses in men and materials in her sustained fight against Boko Haram terrorists and insecurity generally in the country for almost two decades.
He Recommended that the federal government of Nigeria, should task the Ministry of Defence and adequately fund the Nigerian Army to undertake the training of men of the Nigeria Police Mobile Unit towards taking over internal security operations from the military and also the Police Service Commission and the Inspector General of Police should consider the idea of policemen and women living among the civilian populace and only men and women of the Mobile Police Unit to be quartered in the barracks.
