EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY TO DEFEAT BOKO HARAM – OSINBAJO TELLS MILITARY

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Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has charged the military elite to embrace cutting-edge technology that would be used to defeat the Boko Haram terrorists.

Osinbajo gave the charge at the Silver Jubilee and graduation of 133 military and para-military participants of the Course 25 of the National Defence College (NDC) in Abuja.

In his message titled: The Battle Has Changed, he noted that the nation was today facing new challenges and character in warfare, terror and all manners of insurgency.

According to him, terror groups and cyber criminals have used modern technologies to spread useless ideologies and defraud the people and the country cannot afford not to use the same strategies to respond to insurgency.

Osinbajo said: “I challenge the elite of our armed forces that if militants, terrorist groups and internet hackers are constantly re-inventing themselves, taking advantage of emerging technologies, you have no reason whatsoever not to be at the cutting edge of technological warfare.

“You must consistently redefine your role in national security architecture.”The acting President noted that the role of the military was as critical as ever, not just in the traditional areas of terrorist threats and protecting lives and property, adding that the military of the 21st century must realise that it had a role to play in supplying re-enforcement in the ideas that today define the world.

He noted that the military should realise that in the fight against religious extremism, “it is much easier to win the war than to win the peace; it is easier to neutralise the extremists than to neutralise extremist ideologies.

“That is the critical challenge for us in the North East and the critical challenge for many countries that had to do with extremist ideologies and the insurgencies they had,” he said

Commandant of the College, Rear Admiral Samuel Alade, had at a dinner/award night organised for the graduands at its headquarters on Thursday night, urged them to be good ambassadors by projecting the good image of the country wherever they find themselves.

He also charged them to make use of what they have achieved throughout the course of their studies to improve on their professional responsibilities and the country at large. He reminded them that their graduation was a call to duty and that they should put in their very best while carrying out their professional responsibilities.

The Commandant also recalled that for the past 25 years, the college had made great impact on the society and the world at large, adding that the college had also been in interaction with world organisations, such as the African Union (AU) and European Union (EU).

The Special Guest of Honour and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, urged them to bring what they have learnt to bear in the course of discharging their responsibilities, pledging the support of the National Assembly in the discharge of its responsibilities.