Insurgency: NAF to boost Air Power With Additional 18 Aircraft

by Chinyere Okoroafor

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said that it will soon take delivery of another batch of 18 aircraft to boost its operational efficiency and timely employment of Air Power in response to the country’s national security challenges.

It also disclosed that apart from the expected aircraft, 19 brand new aircrafts had been acquired, while 20 hitherto unserviceable aircrafts have been reactivated within the last four years.

The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, who made the disclosure at the opening ceremony of a two-day capacity building workshop on strategic communications in Abuja, stated further that the Nigerian Air Force has also sustained steady improvement in infrastructural development and personnel welfare.

He said that the Service has executed over 900 infrastructure projects including office and residential accommodations, messes, schools and hospitals, adding that, the accommodation sufficiency have scaled up from 35 percent in 2015 to 72 percent.

According to the Chief of the Air Staff who was represented by the NAF Chief of Administration, Air Vice Marshal Kingsley Lar, “we have remained committed to the Vision of “repositioning the Nigerian Air Force into a highly professional and disciplined force through capacity building initiatives for effective, efficient and timely employment of Air Power in response to Nigeria’s national security imperatives”.

“In line with this, over the past 4 years the Nigerian Air Force has ensured steady improvements in infrastructural development and personnel welfare. Accordingly, the Service has executed over 900 infrastructure projects including office and residential accommodations, messes and recreational facilities as well as schools and hospitals, amongst others. As a result, we have been able to raise accommodation sufficiency from 35 per cent in 2015 to about 72 per cent today. This is despite the fact that the strength of the Service has almost doubled within the same timeframe.

“The unflinching support of the Federal Government has also enabled the Service to acquire 19 brand new platforms as well as reactivate 20 erstwhile unserviceable aircraft, while another 18 aircraft have also been ordered and awaiting delivery. Among these are 12 Super Tucano attack aircraft, 3 JF-17 Thunder Multi-role fighter aircraft as well as 2 more Agusta 109 Power Attack Helicopters and one Agusta 139W utility helicopter. These newly acquired and reactivated platforms have added significant impetus to the fight against insurgency and other forms of criminality in the country”.

He added that, “in recognition of the fact that the human being is the most important success factor, the Nigerian Air Force, in the past four years, has invested enormously in human capacity development. As a result, an unprecedented number of officers and airmen/airwomen have been trained in different categories of air and ground operations, both locally and abroad. This is predicated on the firm belief in the importance of purposeful training to develop competencies and skills of personnel to ensure combat readiness for the effective and efficient execution of our constitutional roles.

“The Service has also customized training arrangements with reputable foreign and local training institutions and organizations. This workshop is one of such local capacity building initiatives by the Service aimed at developing the competencies of our Public Relations workforce. It is expected that the Workshop will further broaden participants’ knowledge on emerging global trends in Public Relations while re-enforcing the concept of storyline development to ensure consistent and favourable media coverage”.

On the imperative of the workshop, the CAS noted that, “undoubtedly, Public Relations play an invaluable role in management functions as well as the overall effectiveness of any organization, especially in these modern times. This is more so as contemporary Public Relations practice has evolved from merely informing the public to engaging the public with a view to positively shaping perception of the organisation. Indeed Public Relations is now more about creating value to generate awareness than creating awareness to generate value. The Nigerian Air Force, as a professional fighting force, is quite mindful of this new paradigm and has continued to leverage the strategic significance of Public Relations through effective communication and information management in the face of a volatile and dynamic global security environment.

“Indeed, it should be appreciated that the nature of modern warfare has, over time, brought to the fore the need to ensure the effective management of information, especially as it relates to various audiences within the media space. This is particularly critical in sub-conventional warfare, especially counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, where the support of the local populace is vital to successful operations. Accordingly, a cardinal objective of strategic communications must be to continually assure the people that military operations are designed to ensure their safety, security and well-being. This requires the development of well-structured narratives that are appropriately channeled to convey the right message to the target audiences in a timely manner.

“However, ladies and gentlemen, a good narrative, though necessary, is of no effect without a genuine connection to the people through meaningful investment in their physical well-being. This underscores the need to carryout programmes aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the local populace, as it is not enough to just tell them but also to demonstrate the commitment of the Service to their well-being. In this light, our approach has been to apply a well balanced mix of strategic communication, information management and community relations initiatives that are well coordinated for maximum effects. Thus, the Nigerian Air Force has continued to defend Nigeria’s territorial integrity by air and provide impactful humanitarian interventions, whilst keeping the populace informed on its efforts to ensure their safety and security”.

Earlier, in his speech, the Director of Public Relation and Information, Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, stated that the workshop with the theme; ‘Exploring New Techniques in Participatory and Collaborative Strategic Information Management’, was conceived to empower the Directorate for effective service delivery.

According to him, “this Workshop is being conducted pursuant to one of the key drivers of the Chief of the Air Staff’s Vision that is “Human Capacity Development through Robust and Result-Oriented Training for Enhanced Professional Performance”. It is indeed another testament to the value the Chief of the Air Staff places on Public Relations and Information Management, and yet another in a series of training programmes that have been conducted for Nigerian Air Force Public Relations and Information personnel over the past few years.

“These are all part of the Chief of the Air Staff’s concerted efforts to empower the Directorate for more effective and efficient service delivery. Some of the Directorate’s personnel have been trained abroad in reputable institutes in New York, Paris, Dubai, Istanbul, Johannesburg and London, among others. The Service is also in training collaboration with the African Public Relations Association, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Nigerian Institute of Journalism, International Institute of Journalism, Nigerian Television Authority Television College Jos, Nigerian Film Corporation and a host of other local and foreign organizations. (Please let us appreciate the Chief of the Air Staff for his outstanding leadership.

“Through these various capacity building initiatives, the Nigerian Air Force has stimulated the interest of personnel to develop abilities to do new things effectively, efficiently and promptly, thereby remaining relevant to a rapidly changing security environment. This Workshop no doubt, will improve the capacity of participants and also expose them to new techniques in participatory and collaborative strategic information management as well as strategic communication within the ambit of changing patterns of the global war on terror and other criminal activities”.

He added further that, “information management in this digital age cuts across all sectors of the society and involves various players, including those who have an intellectual and moral understanding of critical national issues as well as those who do not. We have seen that the social media space has broadened the field of information management and has broken the barriers of gatekeepers. This, in essence, means that anyone with access to the Internet can set an agenda and create a narrative, backed with the right emotional appeal to become a topical issue and trend. This is so, especially as it concerns insecurity and military operations in the country.

“It is noteworthy that information management has advanced beyond merely churning out press releases and news stories, but now involves monitoring, engaging and effectively countering/correcting misinformation, while enlightening, educating and changing negative narratives whilst presenting one’s own narrative. This can be carried out through the use of both the traditional and new media platforms, but it is essential that we apply the tools used by our audience to reach out to them with timely information on the activities and achievements of the NAF in a way that will resonate and capture their attention. This is to foster trust and confidence in Nigerian Air Force operations, while showing the humane and empathetic side of the Service”.

“I am glad to say that the Directorate, with the kind approval and support of the Chief of the Air Staff, has keyed into this new paradigm with the establishment of the Social Media Monitoring Centre, where our personnel actively engage the public and manage our narratives. I believe this training will further expose our personnel to the broad spectrum of the social media space and empower participants with the requisite knowledge on how to bridge the gap in the management of information and the participation of our various audiences in the process. It would further enable Public Relations and Information personnel to creatively tell the Nigerian Air Force story in an effective manner that would resonate with the public.”

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Insurgency: NAF to boost Air Power With Additional 18 Aircraft