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From Molly Kilete, Abuja
The National Defence College (NDC) is strengthening its partnership with the Nigeria Shooting Sports Federation (NSSF) to improve military personnel’s marksmanship and combat readiness amid the country’s security challenges.
NDC Commandant, Rear Admiral Abdullahi Ahmed, said regular shooting practice was essential to sharpening troops’ precision and fighting skills, particularly in counter-insurgency operations.
He spoke in Abuja while declaring open the launch of the National Integrated Shooting Sport Platform (NISSP), an NSSF initiative designed to coordinate shooting sports, membership registration and competitions across military and paramilitary formations.
Ahmed said shooting should be regarded as an important military skill requiring continuous practice, stressing that personnel must remain proficient as the country confronts insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other crimes.
“Shooting is a sport. It increases your awareness; it increases your precision,” he said.
“And you know the country is fighting insurgency. The essence is for us to always keep in touch with our traditional military sports, to perfect our fighting skills, especially shooting.”
He urged participants to sustain their shooting practice after completing their courses at the college, saying the skills acquired must translate into readiness for deployment.
“So I expect them, after they leave this place, to continue to practise, so that at the order ‘go’, you understand? Perfect it,” he said.
Ahmed described the partnership with the NSSF as a strategic initiative that would extend beyond the competition, noting that the federation’s expertise and resources made it a suitable partner for developing shooting sports.
“We have thought that the best organisation to partner with is the Nigerian Shooting Sports Federation, with their expertise and the resources they have on the ground. We believe it’s going to be a very viable and resourceful partnership,” he said.
Earlier, NSSF Second Vice President, Aliyu Abubakar Sadiq, who represented the federation’s president, said the digital platform would bring military and paramilitary shooting agencies together for regular competitions and skills development.
He said the initiative, themed “One Federation. One Platform. Built for Trust”, was intended to improve proficiency and participation rather than promote rivalry among security agencies.
“The Nigeria Shooting Sports Federation, as a federation, is trying to harmonise all the shooting agencies, the military and the paramilitary to formally harmonise them and engage them in competitions like this,” he said.
“This is to further sharpen their skills, not to compete against each other. But in the real sense, it is a kind of enhancing their ability and their skills also.”
Sadiq said the portal would enable military and paramilitary personnel, as well as interested members of the public, to apply for membership and participate in the federation’s activities.
“Anybody who is interested in shooting sports, wherever they are, can just log on to the portal, register and submit the application and it will be approved and just like that they are part of a shooting family,” he said.
However, Chief Executive Officer of OB Tech Technologies, the federation’s technology partner, Abdul Talib Musa, said applicants would undergo credential verification and security checks before gaining access through the platform.
“We will validate your credentials and, in line with national security, we will be making sure that only the right people that are meant to be in these sports get and take advantage of this,” he said.
Musa said the checks would include screening for criminality, adding that the platform would also register shooting clubs, range owners, coaches, technical professionals and referees.
He described the initiative as a digital transformation of shooting sports administration, designed to replace spreadsheets, documents and fragmented communications with a single coordinated system.
The portal, he said, would support a national repository of information on athletes, shooters and other participants.
“It’s not just another technology solution; it’s going to be a game changer, a digital transformation in the Shooting Sports Federation for Nigeria,” Musa said.
He urged stakeholders to support the federation’s efforts to develop shooting sports and strengthen participation nationwide.
