Military is recruiting young Nigerians to Innovate’

The Nigerian military is heavily investing in young Nigerians to build innovative solutions to the country’s national security challenges, the Director-General of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), Major-General Victor Ezugwu, said on Monday.

Major-General Ezugwu was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

He said the investment was initiated by President Muhammdu Buhari’s decision to upscale the military’s ability to build its own technology.

“The President ordered us to look into local content for developing strategies and equipment for military solutions to our national security challenges,” he said. “And DICOM is the hub of that solution to our national defence equipment production.”

On December 3, President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled Made-in-Nigeria Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and Major-General Ezugwu noted that the production of the vehicles was mostly done by Nigerians.

“We are using local content up to 70 percent in the production of the armoured fighting vehicles that was recently commissioned by the President.

“And we have gathered some Nigerians who I know are blessed with a lot of human resources. We have gathered engineers. All of them are Nigerians, no foreign advisers or consultant that produced the Ezegwu MRAPs that Mr President has commissioned. The oldest among them is 31 years old.”

DICON has produced ten MRAP units for the army and have signed a contract to produce another 28 units.