President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has taught Nigeria a lesson to invest in local production of weapons.

Global events of the last few of days reinforced the need to improve local production of defence needs, improving security of supply chains and entering into international collaborations that would ensure transfer of technology, said defence minister Bashir Magashi during the Armed Forces Special Day at the ongoing 43rd Kaduna International Trade Fair.

According to him, The  Mr Buhari’s regime is committed to building a strong armed forces. 
Mr Magashi, represented by his special adviser, Ahmad Jibrin, also reiterated the regime’s resolve to continue to provide adequate logistics and equipment for the armed forces to perform their assigned tasks.

He stressed that the ongoing efforts by the regime to establish a military industrial complex was a pointer towards Mr Buhari’s drive to improve self-sustainability in the armed forces.

“The complex will be a collaboration involving the government, the military, the defence industries and research institutions, with activities geared towards the production of Nigeria’s defence needs.
I call on members of the academia and industries to take advantage of the opportunity and seek possible areas of partnership,” he said.

The event provides a platform for the military to showcase its prowess in the indegenous production defence products as well as its research and development efforts.

He praised the efforts of the Nigeria Defence Academy, Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, and Command Engineering Depot, CED, for representing the military at the event and showcasing a number of indegenous military products.

He charged them not to rest on their laurels.
DICON’s director-general, Hassan Tafida, assured the minister of the armed forces’ commitment committed to improve it’s capacity and be self-reliant in producing all military hardware needs.

(NAN)