Philip Nwosu
The Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin, has charged retiring military personnel to re-awaken their intelligence gathering techniques as they would be required to be the eyes and ears of government when they leave the service.
Olonisakin called for synergy and cooperation with other elements in the national security configuration in other to enable the military surmount the various security challenges around the country.
The Chief of Defence Staff spoke during the opening ceremony of the seminar on community intelligence gathering organised by the Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre (NAFRC), Oshodi, Lagos, explaining that the seminar would expose trainees of the centre on the best practices in national security and focus attention of the military in engaging retirees as the eyes and ears of the government in their various communities.
He said: “The essence of the seminar is to sensitise you to certain key indicators and occurrences within the communities you reside in that could be detrimental to national security. Therefore, as a patriotic citizen, the onus is on you to inform the authorities to enable them take appropriate action. It is believed that if this new approach in collaborative national security had been emplaced in the past, some of the teething national security challenges we are confronting today could have been nipped in the bud.”
The seminar was aimed at equipping participants of Course 01 2019 billed for retirement in June with knowledge and skills to gather useful intelligence in their communities, which would be passed to security agencies for action.
The training is themed “Community Intelligence Gathering: Panacea for enhanced National Security.” Olonisakin said while the retiring personnel were expected to retire into productive civilian life, they are nonetheless expected to still play important roles toward tackling security challenges bedeviling the country.
“Our retired military personnel by their training, patriotic zeal and commitment could contribute to the attainment of the desired national security.
“It is on this premise that I approved the conduct of this seminar for trainees of Course 1/2019.