Nigeria ripe to increase size of military, says former envoy

FORMER Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Botswana, Ambassador Okubotin C. Cocodia, has maintained that Nigeria is ripe for the establishment of defence Industries in all the six geo-political zones, as there is a pressing need for the Federal Government to increase the size of our military.

Ambassador Cocodia, who said this in an exclusive interview with The Guardian in Abuja said, “considering the size of the our nation, it would be wise not to rely on one, but spread such firms all over the nooks and crannies of Nigerian nation.”

He argued that the Federal Government should set up different defence firms that would specialize in the manufacturing of different types of arms, ammunitions and ordinances, which would make us not to rely on foreigners for our military wares.

“It may not necessarily be only the production of arms but it would serve for the protection of our body armour, boots, uniforms and the likes. Go to countries like China, they have a massive military industrial complex handles all aspects of the force.”

The former diplomat opined that military is one of the organizations that has best trained personnel in our country, which according to him, there are lots of Ph D holders in the Nigerian military in all fields of endeavours.