Buhari: I’ve equipped security, subdued terrorists, bandits

President Muhammadu Buhari has said the robust plan to improve the security architecture of the country had been realized with the upgrading of hardware, the building of facilities, training, equipping of staff and officers, and structuring of a welfare system that caters to more than 50,000 children of fallen heroes.

Speaking on Thursday in Abuja, Buhari said he instituted the recruitment of 60,000 soldiers into the Armed Forces, and thousands graduated from the Nigerian Defense Academy and other security institutions to tighten security.

President Buhari presented 81 new, symbolic flags to the various units of the Nigerian Army.

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While endorsing the 81 flags for various units of the Army, he said the fighting power of the military was at a low ebb as of May 2015, but 7 years later, its fighting power increased significantly making it fourth in ranking among African militaries as against seventh in 2015.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, he said interventions and yearly budgetary allocations to the Army, between 2020 and 2022 had procured hundreds of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, Troops Carrying Vehicles, utility vehicles, tanks, and Armored Personnel Carriers to augment those earlier procured.

President Buhari added that the creation of Army Aviation was one of the major aspects of the ongoing expansion process in the Nigerian Army.

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He said his led-administration efforts paid off with records of unprecedented successes, an increase in the number of neutralized insurgents and surrendered ones alongside their families for deradicalization and rehabilitation through Operation Safe Corridor.

President Buhari noted that the colors he presented to the units were revered symbols of the identity of a unit, and display a regiment’s battle honors or those inherited from predecessors while playing huge roles in the operational successes of their regiments.

The President explained that the last Trooping and Presentation of Colors Parade was held in 2007, and since then new units had been established and operationalized in line with the increasing commitments of the Army.