By Muhammad Tijjani

Mogadishu Battalion has won the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Cadets Brigade inter-battalion shooting competition.

The competition was for Army cadets of 69 Regular Course.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the cadets competed in Modified Snap Shooting and Firing after stress and physical effort, Modified Fire and Movement, Modified Deliberate Shooting, Moving Target Shooting and Falling Plate.

The shooting competition was part of the series of events lined up before the cadets Passing out Parade and Comissioning into the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

Maj.-Gen. Godwin Umelo, Director, Defence Research and Development Bureau, Defence Headquarters, who presided over the ceremony on Saturday at the NDA in Kaduna, described the competition as novel and mission oriented.

He added that the intensity of the training suited the current security threats in the country.

Umelo noted that the set of officers being graduated and comissioned into the military by the NDA were highly disciplined and thorough bred, contributing to so many successes in the fight against insecurity in the country.

He acknowledged the contributions of the NDA Council, headed by the Minister of Defence and the service chiefs for the quality training offered in the Academy.

“We are confident that with the crop of officers we are turning up from the Academy, very soon we are going to sleep in the nearest future,” he added.

“As soldiers, your weapon is your life and best friend, to be alive, you must be prepared to shoot to kill using first round target hit.

“Note that if you fail to kill, you will be killed,” he told the cadets.

Umelo congratulated the Mogadishu battalion for emerging winners of the shooting competition, while urging others to keep working hard.

“The most important thing is that you all exhibited the skills of marksmanship,” he said, adding that they must continue training at all times, as the NDA only gave them the foundation.

Umelo thanked the Commandant for reinvigorating and modernising the Academy’s training based on current realities.

Earlier, NDA Commandant, Maj.-Gen Ibrahim Yusuf, said the competition was designed primarily to fit the current security challenges in Nigeria.

He added that it was also designed to ensure that the cadets become skillful and efficient in weapons handling.

NAN reports that Mogadishu battalion came first with 1,336 points followed by Burma, 1,206.5; Dalet, 1, 129 points, and Abysinia, 1,088 points.(NAN)

News Politics

I'm not a stranger to Nigerian problems - Obi tells Nigerians in Germany

NURUDEEN SHOTAYO

August 27, 2022 11:13 PM

Peter Obi is currently on a tour of Europe and the North America to speak to Nigerians in Diaspora ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi at an event in Frankfurt. [Twitter:@_weyimi]

The Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has declared that he's well informed about all the challenges confronting Nigeria.

Obi's arrival: The frontline candidate said this while addressing a group of Nigerians who came to welcome him to Frankfurt in Germany on Friday, August 26, 2022.

The overseas trip: Pulse had earlier reported that the former Anambra Governor had embarked on a week-long overseas trip where he is expected to attend several events, including lectures, town hall meetings, and interviews with foreign media houses in cities across United States, Europe, and Canada.

Know your candidate: In a statement by the Peter Obi Support Network Media group, the LP flag-bearer told Nigerians to do a proper background checks of all the presidential candidates before listening to whatever promise they make.

He added that every candidate must address Nigerians on their plans make Nigeria work, adding that any candidate that speaks through proxies should be rejected.

Obi's word: “When you listen to us, go and check our background, this is not a time for somebody to show us his qualifications, I live in Nigeria and I know Nigeria and what Nigerians need. I am not a stranger to Nigerian problems.

“I am a trader but I have a privilege to go to some of the best of schools like Oxford, Cambridge, and other Ivy league institutions, but I always say to people that educational qualification is not the same as integrity.

“Listen to all the presidential candidates not through proxy. Let anyone who wants to be your President come forward himself and speak to you directly, because he is the one you will hold responsible for whatever happens to Nigeria under his care.

“This campaign is not a campaign you are going to speak through somebody, that person needs to come and directly tell us what he is going to do for our country and we must take note of whatever he says and hold him by his words.

“We also don’t want that would be carried to this place in a wheelchair, but must consider his capacity, competence, integrity and commitment.”

“I don’t see any country as racist. If you think your host country is racist you can go back to your country. The reason why you are here is because your place is not working.

“So, it is our duty to turn things around in Nigeria for the good of our country.

“Somebody asked me a question about going to look for foreign investors, I said Nigerians outside are going to do what China and India did.

“It is good for us to go back and fix our place, we need to secure it and it is important for our place to have proper leadership that is visionary, there is nothing happening in other countries that is rocket science, a country is measured by its productive capacity.

“Somebody asked me what are we going to do to stabilise the naira and I said it is very simple; production, because the more you produce goods and export , the more your currency becomes stronger, if you are looking for dollars and Euro, just go and sell something to somebody that has euro and dollar and your currency will become strong. We will ensure security of lives and bring stability to governance.

“Our human capital today is low, we have 200 million people with barely ten percent productive capacity. You also need to reduce the cost of Governance and have zero tolerance for corruption. People cannot continue to do what they are doing with government resources.”