Why we are using local uniforms ―Chief of Air Staff

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar has said that the Service will engage textile companies in Nigeria to source for uniform materials in order to reduce the burden of buying the uniforms in exorbitant price by personnel.

He made this known during the commissioning of the Nigerian Air Force Investment LTD (NAFIL) Tailoring Workshop in Kaduna, the CAS said the newly commissioned workshop will serve as a motivation for personnel.”

“With this facility within reach, it saves foreign exchange used to buy uniforms from outside the country and will also provide a means of livelihood for the barrack girls and boys trained on tailoring who will be engaged in the workshop.”

“It has always been my desire to see the Nigerian Air Force attain self-sufficiency in virtually all its needs. This gathering, therefore, offers us the opportunity to celebrate one of such achievements aimed at self-sufficiency by way of establishment of the NAFIL Tailoring Workshop. I must therefore commend the efforts of NAFIL Board of Directors and its management for their laudable vision and for steering the Company in the right direction.”

“The establishment of this tailoring workshop will no doubt go a long way to ensure ample and timely provision of uniforms to our personnel at more cost effective rates. It would also provide an avenue for the hands-on training of our airmen of the Tailoring Specialty, which the Service would ordinarily have sought elsewhere at substantial costs.”

The Managing Director NAFIL, Air Vice Marshal Abubakar Bagare said: “The tailoring workshop was hitherto planned to be a partnership with some foreign investors but upon realisation for the need to grow the Nigerian local industry and contribute our quota towards the enhancement of the military industries complex in Nigeria thought it wise to self-run the project.”

He noted that a project which would have cost the NAF hundreds of millions of naira in equity contributions if allowed to continue in the partnership with foreign investors was built with N40 million.