The Founder Patriotic Action Nigeria, Retired Major General John Gboh has stated that the quality and capacity of a military officer in discharging duties depends so much on how much has been impacted into such an officer.
General Gboh who was speaking in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital stated this during an exclusive interview with Voice of Nigeria.
The Retired Military Officer who came from the background of the Nigerian Army Education Corps pointed out that the combination of education and strategic knowledge, aside building individual capacity, gives an edge in bringing holistic solutions to problems.
He said contrary to the perceptions of many, the Nigerian Army takes education very seriously because education and strategic knowledge are an integral part of Military operations.
He said a lot of the military officers do not just have qualitative combatant training but qualitative strategic as well as academic knowledge and the knowledge is what is translated in the field when an officer is posted to make sure he succeeds in given assignments.
General Gboh however calls for further civil cooperation with the armed forces in carrying out the task of securing Nigeria as the military alone does not hold the answers since the perpetrator are those that live within the society and in communities.
“When we talk of banditry, Kidnappings, raping, these are issues outside of the military, where the military comes in is that the military is called upon to solve these problems and that is why I said the capacity of a military officer depends on how much has been put into him or her”“The problem is basically civil, it is not military officer who are kidnapping or are terrorists, but from the civil society, the government must cooperate with the military, when the government sends the military to operate, it must also cooperate with the military to give them the right capacity to do what they are send for.
The success or otherwise of the military depends on who they are operating under and those around those they are operating under, whether or not they are allowed to go all out to do what they need to do”
General Gboh pointed out that the government is the central point of intelligence gathering and it is well informed as the government of any nation is God on earth.
“The God on earth has police intelligence, Secrete Service intelligence, Military Intelligence coming to it, so when the government should not in any wise withhold anything when sending out the armed forces to operate” stated General Gboh.
Nigerian Officers possess academic, strategic knowledge – General Gboh