By Emmanuel Obisue
With barely two week to the 2023 elections, Chief of Air Staff, CAS, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao has charged personnel of the Nigerian Air Force, NA, to remain apolitical throughout the polls.
The CAS who stated this on Tuesday during his meeting with Branch Chiefs, Air Officers Commanding, AOCs, Commandants and units Commanders at the NAF Headquarters NAF, Abuja, urged Commanders to sensitize personnel on the Code of Conduct for Armed Forces of Nigeria during elections. He also reminding them to be apolitical, particularly now that the elections are close.
A statement made available by Air Commodore Wap Maigida, NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, added that the Air Force will commence a realistic pre-induction training in all its units for personnel that would be deployed for election support duties.
The Air Chief further charged NAF Commanders to synergize with other security agencies within their Areas of Responsibilities towards organizing joint inter-agency training in order to enhance the capacity of law-enforcement agencies in discharging their respective roles during the elections.
“NAF personnel are expected to work in synergy with other security agencies within their respective Areas of Responsibilities to ensure peaceful conduct of the forthcoming general elections”, he said
Amao highlighted that part of NAF’s responsibilities to provide aid to civil authority, include assisting the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the airlift of election materials to various parts of the country.
Air Marshal Amao also charged field commanders in various theatres of operation across the country to sustain the tempo of operations and onslaught against terrorists. According to him, going by recent happenings in the country, it has become imperative for personnel to avoid any actions or utterances that could tarnish the image of the Service.
While commending efforts of Commanders and personnel at various theatres of operations across the country, the CAS noted that the remarkable successes recorded so far against insurgency and terrorism was as a result of hard work, dedication and sacrifices.
Speaking further, the CAS disclosed that the NAF, in 2021 and 2022 alone, trained a total of 9,148 personnel locally and 786 personnel overseas cutting across all aircrew and ground specialties. According to him, currently a total of 122 personnel are undergoing foreign training while 1,057 are on local training and more would be processed for training in the course of the year.
The CAS went further to state that NAF has developed a workable skill retention strategy to sustain excellence and quality by re-engaging selected highly skilled retired personnel in the scarce skills categories as instructors and mentors to pass on expertise and best practices to the junior ones.
