Aside Chief of Air Staff and other Service Chiefs within the Armed Forces of Nigeria, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, has advocated for the establishment of the Space Service Chief, to be known as Chief of Space Staff.
The Deputy Speaker made the recommendation while speaking at the closing ceremony of a 2-day post inuaguration Retreat organized for Members of the House Committee on Defence by the National Defence College, Abuja.
Hon Kalu, who said that this would go a long way to assist the existing security architecture in defending the territorial integrity of the nation, declared that it was high time Nigeria moved from the usual and known mechanism for fighting insurgencies, saying the battle should also be taken into the space, to achieve the unusual results.
According to him, “In making your work easy, we tell you, work within your scope of work; I have seen you also struggle to meet the challenges and the dynamic demands of security, all of which are issues that have gone around the space.
“In some countries, you have Space Service Chiefs, what are we doing about that? There is need for one to be created. We are beyond what is obvious.
“Some of the warfare is now taking place in the space. And I can assure you, we ignore that? We will not be doing justice to the mandate of protecting the territorial borders of this country.
“So, anytime we start looking beyond what happens here, think about what happens up there, the space”, Kalu said.
On the Defence Industry Corporation (DICON) Bill and the Armed Forces Trust Fund Bill currently before the National Assembly for regazetting, the Deputy Speaker assured of his support and those of his Colleagues in making sure the needed logistics and boosts for the Armed Forces are in place.
The two Bills, though passed by the 9th Assembly, did not enjoy the assents of President Muhammad Buhari, before the expiration of the last administration.
But Kalu assured that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu always listens to the National Assembly and the people, and as such, would ensure the Bills do not suffer under this dispensation.
According to him “with the Bills, there will be a stimulation of local content, in manufacturing the tools and the equipments needed to keep our nation safe.
“It is a call on Mr. President, to do it and do it as urgently as possible. So that, some of the funding contracts of the military at the moment will be converted into military industrial complexes.
“And I can assure you, alot of value addition to what we do with our Defence. So that the nearby countries, they will be coming here, to purchase that which our ingenuity and innovations through technology is able to produce.”
Speaking, the Chairman, House Committee on Defence, Hon. Babajide Benson, lauded the quality Leadership presented by the Tajudeen Abbas-led 10th House of Representatives, assuring that the Committee would work closely with the Defence sector, at achieving the legislative agenda of the Green Chamber, as well as nipping insecurity to the bud in Nigeria.
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