5 CONTRIBUTIONS/ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE NIGERIAN AIRFORCE

 The Nigerian air force was formed in the 1964 by an act of parliament, the force was unprepared and not all that strong in the civil war from 1967-1970, but trust me things have changed under the rulership of President Mohammadu Buhari and the great chief of Air staff  Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar. The Air forces has strongly waxed and developed its wings; however here are the contributions and achievements of the Nigerian air force in this past few years.

STRONG LAND AND AIR SUPPORT AGAINST THE BOKOHARAM AND MILITANCY

The Nigerian Air force deployed in the core north under operation “lafiya doyle,”  the south south “operation delta safe,” and in the south west “operation awatse” has played a significant role by neutralizing all form of terrorist movements or attack through air attacks from the alpha jets and the f7-ni crafts, also they have made it very difficult for those who are stealing our national crude to make away with what they stole by terminating most oil theft culprits by air attacks through the ec1-35 helicopters .

DEVELOPMENT OF MANPOWER

The Nigerian Air force under the leadership of Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar has focused more on the capacity development and training of air force pilots. They have trained over 118 pilots from 2015 till now and is currently training 70 pilots. The air force have also improved development in the capacity of the engineers, the air force has trained over 200 engineers abroad so as for them to have a prerequisite knowledge and skills on how to maintain planes. This has improved the serviceability of the air force as they have been able to re-activate 11 eleven planes that have not been flying thanks to the capacity building the air force.

RECOGNITION OF AIRMEN AND OFFICERS

The air force have not failed to appreciate and honour men who go out there to fly these aircrafts, undertake missions, and also those that ensure that these aircraft flies. The air force have not failed to look at the welfare of the personnel whether airmen or officers; they have provided health facilities, expanded their hospitals, provided nice accommodation and also empowered their dependants through NAFOWA and the rest.

HIGH INNOVATION

The Nigerian air force with the advantage of the talents in universities through the memorandum of understanding they got into with 11 universities have been able to look inwards and locally went into research and development that have substantially impacted positively on the service security of their airplanes.  Did I also mention that the Nigerian air force now have a research and development centre? Hmmm….

ESTABLISHMENT OF SPECIAL OPERATION COMMAND

The Nigerian air force have been able to establish additional field command and quick reactive units in various states like Imo, Plateau, Zamfara and is about to put  one in Osun. All these are to ensure the effectiveness of the air force services in Nigeria. The air force have expanded,  the air force that was rolling out bombs from the cabins of a plane in the 1967-1970 civil war is now today an air force that have its personnel sitting comfortably in Yola guiding unmanned fighter jets to strike Boko-Haram territory 250KM away the from base in Yola.

Nigerian air force willing able and ready (WAR). Long live the Nigerian air force!

Author: Nduka John