Army ready to defend unity of Nigeria – Ihejirika

CHIEF of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, has warned politicians harbouring the idea of dismembering the country to discard such ideas as the Nigerian Army was prepared to pay the supreme price in defence of the unity of the country.
Gen. Ihejirika’s warning came on the heels of the arrest of a serving Senator for allegedly supporting the Boko Haram Islamic sect which has been bombing several parts of the North and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja in recent times.
Fielding questions from newsmen shortly after the end of a three-day Chief of Army Staff, COAS, conference in Benin, he said the Military and other security agencies had made huge sacrifices to keep Nigeria united in the past past and would continue to do same..
“My advice to politicians is first, that there is no other country but Nigeria. It is because Nigeria exists that they are able to aspire to positions. But having said this, I want to remind every one the Nigerian Army made huge sacrifices along with other agencies to keep this county one and united.
“The last civil war happens to be one example. The Nigerian Army is ever determined to pay the supreme price at any point in time to keep this country united.
’’So, it is a wasted effort for anyone to think of dismembering this country. Such politicians should rather discard such idea completely,” he said, assuring that the Nigerian Army would remain apolitical at all times.
The COAS further said the Army was able to come up with new principles for the management of terrorism, adding that that the principles included commitment, patriotism and resilience among others.
According to him, the Army now have a better understanding of the challenges of terrorism and were therefore better positioned to deal with it.
He stated that in fighting terrorism, one way to reduce collateral damage and save the lives of innocent people was to improve on intelligence gathering, saying that because that Army cannot fight terrorism alone, it has established Department of Civil-Military relations to deal effectively with the situation, pointing out that the conference afforded them the opportunity to review all its activities in the areas of operations, training, logistics and general administration.
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