BEVERLY HILLS, December 11, (THEWILL) – The Chief of Air Staff, CAS, Air Marshal Abubakar yesterday underscored the need for young officers of the Nigerian Air Force to be trained on strategies for winning the war against the Boko Haram terrorists ravaging the North-east before termination of the December deadline for defeating the terrorists.
The CAS, who made this call at the ECOMOG Veterans Retreat held in Yola, the Adamawa state capital, disclosed that the Air Force has deployed veterans who successfully fought rebels in some African countries under the ECOMOG to mentor and train its young officers.
He explained that this will help in building the capacity of the younger generation of officers especially on how to combat the insurgents, adding that the young officers need adequate knowledge to be efficient and to face the challenges of the 21 century.
Abubakar continued that the idea was to bring veterans who had retired from Air force to share their experiences with the young officers with a view to resolving some of the challenges being encountered in air operations in the North-east.
According to him, “Basically in terms of the use of air power they (fight against Boko Haram and ECOMOG air operations) are basically the same. We believe they (ECOMOG veterans) were very successful, so we want to know what were the challenges when they were using the same planes, Alpha jets while operating in ECOMOG. What were the challenges, how similar are the challenges and how were they able to resolve them. We believe there are so many things the younger ones can learn.”
The Air Force Chief revealed that the military, through the help of the Air force, have been able to degrade the fighting capability of the insurgents and has gone deeper into the dreaded Sambisa forest with the aim to root out the insurgents that has taken grip of the forest.
“We have degraded the capacity of the insurgents and we are coordinating with the army so that we can ultimately get into the forest. You should also know that you have a role to play. I think collectively as a nation, we are moving toward the deadline,” he said.
Revealing that the Air Force was also strategizing to bombard the insurgents in the night, Abubakar observed that the insurgents usually take advantage of the fact that their fighter jets do not operate in night hence unleashes their attacks mostly in the night.
The military chief, who noted that the unity of the country rely on the Armed Forces, said the Air Force leadership has been improving on its operational capability and welfare of its personnel to be able to cope with the current challenges and discharge its responsibilities effectively.
