Air power is undeniably a fundamental military element of national strength. It remains a crucial factor in determining the outcome of any war. The capability of every air force globally is measured by its leadership, the number of serviceable aircraft in its inventory and professional competence of its airmen. In its 55 years as a fighting force, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has had its fair share of setbacks, just like any other. Significantly, the level of training in NAF was at its lowest ebb prior to the coming on board of the current NAF administration and this led to serious decline in its fortunes. Most of its aircraft were grounded due to lack of spares while it was even more difficult to secure training slots overseas.
Different reasons could be adduced for this. One was political which stemmed from prolonged military rule. Sanctions were imposed on the country at the time which made it difficult to procure equipment or train personnel and this adversely affected both local and overseas trainings.Spirited efforts by successive NAF administrations to restore the glorious past did not yield much result. However, in July 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar as the 20th Chief of Air Staff (CAS). Mindful of the key role of building the professional competence of his men, the CAS wasted no time in carving out a vision to support his quest to reposition NAF into a highly professional and disciplined force through capacity building initiatives for effective, efficient and timely employment of air power in response to Nigeria’s national security imperatives.The vision was anchored on six-key drivers prominent among which was human capacity development through robust and result oriented training for enhanced professional performance. With the support of the federal government in providing required resources, Air Marshal Abubakar immediately embarked on recruitment as well as training and retraining of personnel to meet the emerging security challenges confronting the nation.
In over four years of being at the helm of affairs, the Abubakar administration has recruited 7,693 airmen/airwomen while 669 officers have been commissioned. Currently, about 206 Direct Short Service Commission (DSSC) officer cadets are undergoing training at the Military Training Centre (MTC), Kaduna. Before now, the number of recruits into NAF was just 500 per training cycle. However, with the expansion of the training facilities at the MTC, the number of recruits has now increased to 2,500.
NAF has trained officers, airmen and airwomen in different categories of air and ground functions. It has winged 92 pilots while several other pilots are undergoing various training. On the whole, about 1,500 re-currency and advanced flying training courses have been conducted for NAF pilots, both locally and abroad.One of the striking aspects of NAF manpower development by Air Marshal Abubakar administration is the training of young pilots of the ranks of flight lieutenants and below including females who are not just captains on their respective aircraft types but also instructor pilots, risking their lives and flying day and night missions to ensure the security of Nigerians. The training of these young pilots undoubtedly adds impetus to the fight against insurgency and other internal security operations in the country.
The recent historic winging of NAF’s first female fighter pilot, Flying Officer Kafayat Sanni, and first female combat helicopter pilot, Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile, decorated alongside 11 other young officers after completion of their flying training courses speak about the depth, bold and inclusive vision of Abubakar in repositioning the force.Aircraft serviceability is dependent on the effectiveness of engineers and technicians. To this end, the current leadership has also taken major steps in the area of training and retraining of engineers and technicians both at home and overseas as over 2,255 engineering officers and technicians have received different levels of training since 2015.The training has not been limited to pilots, engineers and technicians but equally extended to other operational and administrative personnel. Over 15,114 different training courses have been conducted within the same period. The story is the same across all trades and specialties in NAF for both commissioned and non-commissioned officers.
NAF now has a much more competent professional force to undertake missions for effective and efficient service delivery.As part of efforts to effectively tackle the internal security challenges in the country in fulfillment of its statutory roles, NAF, in the last four and half years, has restructured the Regiment Specialty. Tasked with the responsibility of protecting NAF bases and assets as well as national assets like airports, it was relatively ill-equipped with inadequate manpower due to years of neglect.Today, the Regiment Specialty under the leadership of Air Marshal Abubakar has not only been reorganised, but adequately equipped and its personnel retrained both at home and abroad to effectively defend NAF Bases and other critical national assets against attacks as well as emerging security threats in the country.
In 2015, the current NAF administration took a bold step to initiate two separate training programmes for the development of the capacity of personnel of the Regiment Specialty. The first, in collaboration with Israeli Four Troops Team was for the development of Special Forces (SF) capabilities for the NAF while the second, in collaboration with the British Military Advisory Training Team (BMATT), was for training in Force Protection in Complex Air Ground Environment (FPCAGE). Aside the local training, some of the elements of the NAF SF have also been trained in Belarus and Pakistan. The SF was established to deal with the dynamism of contemporary security challenges whilst ensuring base defence and protection of NAF air assets and critical installations.So far, the Regiment Specialty has witnessed astronomical increase in strength from about 1,300 in 2015 to over 4,000 while over 1,000 SF personnel have been trained both locally and abroad. Out of the 1,000 SF personnel, 300 have been deployed for internal security operations in Zamfara state and another 300 deployed to Benue state under the Defence Headquarters ‘Operation WHIRL STROKE. Similarly, 3,600 personnel drawn from the Regiment, Intelligence and Air Police specialties have been trained in FPCAGE from 2015 to date.The regular and advanced training of aircrew and other operational and administrative personnel has reinforced the combat capability of NAF which accounts for the significant successes so far recorded in the fight against insurgency and other forms of criminality in the country.Air Marshal Abubakar strongly believes that a man cannot give what he does not have. This informed his passion for training and retraining of NAF personnel for effective and efficient service delivery. He said, “In the race to add value to our society and secure our communities, there is no finishing line.”For an air force previously beset by significant deficits in funding, equipment, logistics, updated combat doctrine, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar, has moved unrelentingly to change the narrative and reposition the force to better confront and defeat the foe, on multiple fronts.
Significantly, in the heat of conflict, Abubakar also ensured that NAF continues to remain apolitical, professional and commendably responsive in the discharge of its constitutional roles.
Chukwuma writes from Abuja