The Director General of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), Maj.-Gen. Aniedi Edet, has said Nigeria’s security challenges demand indigenous military capabilities to surmount.
General Edet spoke at the opening of a two-day DICON management staff seminar which started yesterday in Kaduna.
The DICON boss noted that the current realities in Nigeria, as security challenges being faced, demanded military capabilities.
He added that most of the capabilities given to the Armed Forces were not from DICON, hence the difficulties to buy defence wares from outside the country.
Citing the repatriation of foreign exchange, Edet said it took time for defence capabilities to arrive in the country.
The DICON boss stressed the imperatives of stepping up indigenisation to meet up the nation’s defence needs.
According to him, the seminar is meant to foster the mandate of DICON, which is to achieve self-reliance in defence material productions in support of national development and security.
“Since taking over as DG DICON in July 2023, my management team and I have been committed towards achieving the corporation’s mandate based on my pillars/philosophy,” Edet said.
The DICON boss listed his pillars and philosophy to include business-oriented mindset, professionalism, communication, welfare of workers, as well as collaboration and partnership.
He explained that the road map to achieving the broad objectives was to quickly identify and pursue vigorously the desired changes that were within the corporation’s realm and resources to execute.
General Edet solicited the intervention of the Ministry of Defence on the concerns that were outside the corporation’s resources.
He restated DICON’s commitment to excellence, resilience, and synergy that echoed through the factories of the corporation.
The DICON boss said the seminar would serve as a catalyst for greater achievements and collective work towards a more secured and prosperous Nigeria.
The General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 1 Division Nigeria Army in Kaduna, Maj.-Gen. Valentine Okoro, said he had realised that the security threats the nation faced was enormous.
According to him, the critical game changer is the deployment of the right equipment.
General Okoro added that the current realities in Nigeria showed that getting the equipment from outside the shores of Nigeria could be challenging due to international politics/bureaucracy and other forces.
