NAF rejigs operations against Boko Haram, hires dons

The Acting Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, said in Kaduna on Friday that the Nigerian Air Force is re-strategising it mode of operation to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-Eastern part of the country.

He added that the NAF would look inward to enhance its research capability by bringing in experts from 15 universities in the country to partner with the organisation to “deal with some of our problems while relying on what ever support we get from the outside.”

Abubakar, who spoke to journalists during his maiden familarisation tour of NAF formations in Kaduna, said the part of re-strategising was to ensure that the officers and men of the force were exposed to current training obtainable around the world.

Though, the COAS said NAF was contending with some challenges, he noted that these were surmountable.

He added that the NAF was currently re-assessing itself on what it had done and ways to improve upon them in order to end the menace of the terrorists in the country.

He said the idea behind his visit was to meet with officers and men and to look at what they had been doing to identify areas of improvement.

Abubakar added, “We recognise that no system is perfect. So, we are re-strategising ‎and part of it is to build the capacity of our personnel so that they will be able to handle the maintenance of our airplanes and issues that have to do with the sensibility of airplanes.

“I agree with you that there are some challenges but with the help of the federal government ‎they are going to get sorted out.

“We are reassessing what we have done so far; what we need to do additionally in order to make NAF more effective in dealing with the problems in the north-eastern states.”