FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WILL INVEST IN AFIT TO ENHANCE TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT – HMOD

EVENTS

The Honourable Minister of Defense (HMOD), Mohammed Badaru Abubakar CON mni has reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to the development of the nation’s indigenous institutions to enhance the technological development of the country. The Minister stated this at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) during his tour of critical military institutions within Kaduna.

The Honourable Minister who was pleasantly pleased with the contributions of AFIT to the technical development of manpower for the country and friendly African nations, disclosed that providing support to these technical institutions was in line with the President’s renewed hope agenda of making the country technologically self-dependent especially in fighting insecurity in the country.

HMOD Abubakar had earlier visited the Nigerian Defence Academy, Central Engineering Depot (CED) and Buffalo Engineering Technical Services Limited (BETSL) in an extensive two-day working visit to Kaduna. According to the Minister, it will benefit the country a lot if institutions like AFIT can manufacture an indigenous aircraft to international standard as that will reduce the country’s reliance on importing or acquiring aircraft from other countries. He stated further that providing the needed support to AFIT to actualise its research outcomes will bring more job opportunities to Nigerians just as he enjoined other technical units like the Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) to collaborate with AFIT to achieve more success.

The AFIT Commandant, Air Vice Marshal Sani Labaran Rabe, thanked the Minister for this long-overdue visit and pleaded with him to assist the Institute with the perimeter fencing of the university to safeguard the students and eliminate all security threats to the Institute. AVM SL Rabe informed the Minister about the paucity of fund and inadequate budgeting from the Federal Government which constitute a major setback towards implementing the outcome of some viable research findings.

Earlier, the Honorable Minister was informed of the over Twenty Five Billion naira AFIT saved the country in each of its training circle from just one centre out of many operating within AFIT. The HMOD, who was accompanied by other senior military officers, used the opportunity to inspect some facilities and was impressed with the enormous research work going on in the Institute as well as some innovations.

Bassey Ibiang Okon PhD
Wing Commander
Director of Public Relations
Air Force Institute of Technology