Nigeria’s Vice President , Prof Yemi Osinbajo has touted the local production of military hardware as a way to combat terrorism ravaging the country.
This was disclosed in a statement on Thursday by spokesman to the vice-president, Laolu Akande.
According to the statement, Osinbajo said this following a presentation by the National Defence College course 30 participants.
The presentation, done on Wednesday, was titled, ‘Defence Transformation and National Security: Strategic Options for Nigeria of the Future’.
“It is clear that given current realities in our security situation, there is absolutely every need for us to fast-forward all our plans for the future so that we can be much more effective in dealing with the current threats, and the threats that we will experience as we go into the future,” Osinbajo was quoted as saying.
“One of the most critical areas is the question of local production of military hardware and I think it is a low-hanging fruit when it comes to manufacturing some of the hardware that we will need.
“I think that there is a need, especially now, to really look very closely at local production of our hardware, beginning with armament.
“If we say the local companies should produce some of the mobile platforms like armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and multi-role armoured vehicle (MRAV), if we give them the contracts, they will produce.
“But if we choose to import rather than produce locally, then we will never develop our military-industrial complex”, the statement added.
