The General Officer Commanding 81 Division of Nigerian Army, Major General Lawrence Fejokwu has reiterated the commitment of the Nigerian Army to the continuous training and retraining of its officers as part of strategies to combat the present insecurity facing the country. Fejokwu, who disclosed this while declaring open the ‘2021 Corporal and Below Competition” of the 81 Division of Nigerian Army in Abeokuta, said training and retraining of the Nigerian Army personnel is required in view of the contemporary security challenges.
He said, “the need for the competition was to sustain the tempo of training as outlined in the forecast of event 2021 must be taken with all seriousness”.
“I am therefore quite happy that the Corporal and below are participating in this competition in order to meet up with the standard of training observed in formations and units in the Nigerian Army”.
“As Nigerian Army personnel, this training will no doubt enrich your level of professionalism and make you more responsive in the discharge of your duties which is in line with the vision of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Attahiru, which is to have a Nigerian Army that is repositioned to professionally defeat all adversaries in a joint environment”.
“The competition was aimed at improving junior leadership and inculcating good traits, organizational ability and initiative in the stipulated rank bracket at non-commission officers in the division”. The competition will promote esprit-de-corps among the officers, as well as build inter formations and unit relationship”.
Fejokwu added that “there is no better time for training as we are now confronted with various security challenges across the country”. He charged the personnel “to continue to train realistically in order to meet up with the demands of security”.
“I am aware that six events will be competed for. These included; weapon handling, drilling, half marathon race, point to point navigation, combat swimming and obstacle crossing.
He said, there are changes in some of the events to be competed for in this year’s competition, which included the decision that swimming would not be carried out in the swimming pool but an open river which depicts the reality being faced during operations and also the introduction of night firing during range classification. “You must remain resolute in the discharge of your duties as professional soldiers,” he said. Three units participated in this year’s competition. They included 9 Brigade, 35 Artillery Brigade and 81 Division Garrison.
