The Sun News
By PHILIP NWOSU
Thursday, July 14, 2011


he Nigerian Army has started local construction of gunboats for use by its amphibious unit, thereby saving the country money.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Onyeabor Azubuike Ihejirika said hitherto, N300million was used to service 10 boats for the unit, an amount which he said was high.

He said this N300million was being spent on the boats every six months, but rather than deploy such money to servicing of gunboats, the army has decided to deploy the fund to construction of new boats at N55million each.

He said: “We have decided to embark upon the local construction of these boats, because when I assumed office, we discover that N300million was spent to service 10 boats and the boats became unserviceable six months after and we made enquiry and we got a local builder who built for N55million each which means with N300million we will get five brand new and the boat we built are Amoured proof.

“This type of venture implies that if we have one billion we can build 15 boats and in the process of building we deploy our men from the signals and engineering unit to be able to determine the type of communication equipment needed.”

General Ihejirika spoke during the 2011 edition of the Combat Support Arms Training week in Lagos, revealing that the force has rehabilitated light armoured fighting vehicles essential for internal security operations, adding that they would be deployed to crisis areas soon.

He directed commanders of units and formation of the Nigerian Army in Lagos to immediately organize a “scale A” parade for all soldiers and officers in the state, to ensure discipline.
Ihejirika said: “The idea is that every single soldier or occupant of Army quarters in Lagos must be accounted for by his commander. This exercise is related to security and have far-reaching implication for discipline. I am happy with the recent measure undertaken by units in Lagos to enhance discipline in Lagos.


This Lieutenant General Onyeabor Azubuike Ihejirika seems to be doiing helluva of a good job. more grease to his elbow

Great moves.

Make them dey there dey construct canoe when BokoHaram dey up north dey fry their asses
dey boast for .

hope they'll have time to use them

Our problems have always been, we are not always prepared before any problems

This is a welcome development, but is our army capable of modern digital warfare? or they are good at matching parades, fighting policemen. but they do well in peace keeping missions and fertilizing the women of the host community.

- Oh just shut up you negative people.

hmmm. . . . this people?
dem fit just put green paint for canoe come dey tell us say dem build boats.
Make we see the boats na, abi?

When will they begin local construction of off road 4 X 4s and hum Vees that can navigate the deserts of Borno state for them to use in fighting boko haram,abi na the boat dem wan use for Maiduguri

Canoe mounted with den guns?

Good for them.

its never to late to combat the melee . , i wish then victory

No,

Ðey should kéep drinking alcohol & keep carrying ashawo around since dey re army, :>(

Becos dats d only thing dey do best.

owobokiri:

Canoe mounted with den guns?

Its not "den guns" its "dane guns" man.

Bad_guy:

Its not "den guns" its "dane guns" man.

Good Development. I hope corruption will not scuttle this noble effort. Cheers.

Talk is cheap, action is dear.

I don't believe in coming to the press to tell the whole world what you will/can do. Tell us what you are doing or have done. This is Nigeria pls. Every other person speaks like a politician telling people what he will do for them.
Match words with actions. That's absolutely what we need.

Typical of Nigerians. Instead of constructing humvee's to help in pursuit of Boko haram; they are constructing assault boats. What's their need? To attack the already pacified MEND? We as a nation has formed the habit of tackling problems in the lowest chain of our scale of preference.

Treating eczema and curing leprosy. Which one should take priority?
Attacking Boko Haram that is presently blowing the country apart AND fighting MEND; which one should be our priority?

Still reading,

Its not "den guns" its "dane guns" man.

No mind me. Na so i dey murder turenchi dey go. You for take style correct me now, why so opendential?

A welcome development all that money spent on those soldier boys should not all go to waste. If you ask me i would say they should go and learn more technology and adapt it into building more assault weapons and save our nation huge foreign exchange

SCAM AND FRAUD

constructing it @ the wrong tym

Haba! Make una take am easy with our army naaaaa. At least they thought about it to begin with. Let us encourage them and believe in our abilities.

All this negativity tire me ooo or are we suffering from massive dose of inferiority complex that we are not good at anything as the oyibo's have made us to believe?

Our military is probably the most credible institution still holding our nation together. But, in Naija, damned if you do, damned if you don't.

@Greath, ma man. I'm a very big fan of yours on skyscrapercity, i'm not a member of skyscrapercity, but I'm a regular visitor. I really want to thank you and the other guys for showing our country in a very positive light on skycrapercity.com. You never know the amount of people you brighten there day and mood with the beautiful photos of nigeria, it's landscape, people, economy,military, tourism and it's potentials etc, From the desert wastelands of the north, the beautiful plateaus of the middle belt, down to the rich oil fields of the delta, showing the hardwork of our igbo's, the brilliant minds of the yorubas and the massive empires of the hausas brothers. Your photos capture's the true essence of being a nigerian, and why i would alwayz draw my green passport to my heart. In the midst of all the choas, we will always come out stronger as we have always done. The last post i read on you, was when you commented on the standard rifle of the sss(i most sy that's a very sexy gun). The nigerian made ak47 is very clean and it looks more effective than the regular ak47(correct me, if am wrong). Can i ask, what's the standard rifle of the nigerian army special forces and the nigerian navy special boat service(i hope, it's not the ak47 tho)? Keep up the good work man(least i 4get, u still have very good posts, here on nairaland also) thanks man, we really appreciate your work.

How far about DSSC successful candidates lists 2011

I smell rat(or is it fish?). How can someone in their right senses believe a gunboat would require such an insane amount to service every 6 months?

GAR3TH said

I still don't understand the negativity on Nairaland. Maybe its because many people on here aren't Nigerian or at least don't live in Nigeria.

I think its because they know little to nothing about whats happening in their country.

Anyway Nigeria's Military has built indigenous Transport boats, ferries, warship (u/c) and is a major player in dry dock repairs in west africa and africa.

So why cant they build assault boats? . . .

Most of the people here are either kids, or frustrated, jobless loafers, GAR3TH. Always bear that in mind when u come here.

This is probably the best news I've heard on this topic I'm especially passionate about. It's just unfortunate that we're just waking up to something that should have been earning us major forex for decades. The Defense Industries Corporation Of Nigeria (DICON) was set up to do stuff like this but has spent all its energies on local assembly of outdated foreign weapons. The type of stuff that we can't even sell to bloody hunters in the villages.
The global defense industry is worth trillions of dollars if we can get our act right.
Building assault boats is a good start. I hope DICON will follow this up with its own innovations. The funds are there. The government backing is there. The local talent is there. I should know, I drew an original blueprint for a Claymore-Style fragmentation grenade at the tender age of 8.
All in all, I believe this is something we need to press forward with.

Great initiative. Lots of respect for the General.