The Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, has described the war colleges of the Army, Navy and Airforce as veritable assets which always come in handy in developing plans and strategies that enable optimization of available operational resources towards achieving national military objectives.

Speaking at the opening of the second Joint Operations Planning Exercise for the Services War Colleges in Abuja, code named ”Exercise Sky Lock 2022”, the CDS said the war colleges are sustaining the ideals of Joint Operation Planning Exercises, JOPEX, noting that it would surely institutionalize a culture of joint planning, training and collective efforts in security operations.

He said: “The idea of the JOPEX for the war colleges was conceived in order to enhance joint operations among the services during planning and execution phases of operations.

“This second edition of the exercise, which is built around contemporary, realistic and real-time security events in Nigeria and beyond, marks the culmination of several months of significant efforts made towards developing the skills of participants of the three war colleges in operational art, operational design and decision-making process, among others.

“It is certainly another milestone in the professional military education trajectory of the Nigerian military in the quest to properly equip our officers for present and future assignments.

“As think tanks of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, the war colleges are indeed the laboratories and incubation centres for the production of military operational level plans as well as for measurement of performance and effectiveness of subsisting plans with a view to revising them for enhanced effectiveness.

“To this end, the product of this Joint Operations Planning Exercise will form part of the military strategic decisions for some ongoing and future operations. This underscores the significance of this exercise and the resources committed to its actualization.

“Today’s event, therefore, demonstrates the ability of the war colleges to ensure they maintain an enduring tradition that would enshrine joint planning culture at the military operational leadership level.

“This culture is, indeed, essential to the development of operational level capacity towards tackling the multifarious contemporary security challenges and for future military operations.

“The complex 21st Century security environment holds huge implications not only for the military but also for all sectors of governance and society.

“The contemporary security environment weaves through all levels of organizational decision-making systems that cut across international and cultural boundaries. It is gratifying therefore to observe the diverse array of participants from the military and security agencies as well as allied foreign military officers that would be participating in this exercise.

“Against this backdrop, I am convinced that the knowledge, skills and capacities, you, the participants have acquired particularly in operational art, will enhance your professional judgment in a joint operating environment and would remain an indelible resource of your problem-solving and decision-making loops.“

in line with the vision of the Chief of Defence Staff, adding that participants of the colleges would benefit more through deliberate efforts to promote joint academic activities among the colleges.

He enjoined the 112 participants, comprising 73 from Nigerian Army, 22 from Nigerian Navy and 17 from Nigerian Air Force, and other from allied countries as Cameroon, Congo Brazaville, Uganda, Gambia and para-military organizations to devote themselves to the exercise as they stood to benefit from their interactions with other participants.