Army Chief vows to standardize welfare of personnel, family members

By Emmanuel Obisue

Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja has reiterated his commitment to ensuring the highest standards of administration to enhance the welfare of Nigerian Army personnel and their families.

This, he said, is aimed at boosting troops’ morale and ultimately enhancing operational effectiveness.

Gen Lagbaja who made this declaration on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the Combat Arms Training, CAT Week at the Jaji Military Cantonment in Kaduna State, recalled that as someone who has lived extensively in the barracks, he was “not oblivious to the challenges of poor barracks accommodation, infrastructure decay medical centres, schools and other administrative issues that have negatively impacted unit administration”.

Lagbaja revealed that in order to bring succour to personnel and their families, he has initiated intervention programmes, specifically in the areas of accommodation, credit financing, and other family support schemes to enhance troops’ morale and build family resilience.

He catalogued such interventions to include the COAS Empowerment Loan and the Affordable Housing Ownership Option for All Soldiers, AHOOAS, schemes. “We have so far structured our intervention plan to make it more encompassing and adaptive to the prevalent economic reality of the nation ”, he pointed out.

The Army Chief clarified, that this year’s CAT Week, being his maiden one as COAS, presents an opportunity to restate his desire to improve the combat arms’ capabilities towards achieving the Nigerian Army’s constitutional obligations, just as he challenged the Combat Arms to leverage the skills and competencies inherent in the Support Corps to enhance their doctrine and capabilities needed to defeat contemporary threats.

Addressing participants at the CAT Week, the Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, who was represented by the State’s Commissioner for Security and Homeland Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, saluted the courage and resilience of troops in confronting the menace of terrorism and insurgency in the country, stressing that the expanded footprints of the ongoing operations have brought further succour to troubled areas and Kaduna State in particular.

The CAT Week was themed: “Sound Administration: A Panacea for Improved Combat Arms’ Efficiency in a Joint Environment,” a statement by Major General Onyema Nwachukwu, Director of Army Public Relations stated.