FEC reviews military operations in Northeast

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday assessed military operations in the Northeast amid complaints of inadequate funding and personnel in the armed forces.

FEC also reviewed the successes and failures of each of the operations from “Operation Lafia Dole” to “Operation Tawase”.

The Minister of Defence, retired Maj.-Gen. Bashir Magashi,  who disclosed this, said this followed  the ministry’s presentation at the virtual FEC presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“We talked about all the operations we have been conducting, the successes and failures of each o the operations right from Operation Lafia Dole to Operation Tawase.

“We spoke about our shortcomings. We talked about manpower shortage, inadequate funding for the Ministry of Defence.

“The shortcomings of each of the operations were discussed and God so kind contributions were made by members of the council and I think in no distant time, there will be a change in the conduct of our affairs in the Ministry of Defence,” he said.

The Minister of Environment, Mr Mohammad Abubakar, who also presented a ministerial performance report, said the Ogoni cleanup, the ministry is currently cleaning up 21 plus 36 sites in Ogoni.

According to him, 775 jobs have been created in the Ogoni clean up while 400 women are being trained in agriculture, aquaculture and poultry  to improve the living standard of the people.

He disclosed that 25 million trees would be planted in collaboration with the state governments.

Abubakar said out of 774,000 jobs that President Buhari approved to be created, the Ministry of Environment as one of the implementing agencies is to employ 200,000 skilled and unskilled labour as well as 2,000 through the Erosion Department.

He said the ministry would also create jobs in the area of waste recycling, reuse, repair and waste recovering.

“It is no longer fashionable to just produce, use and dispose because the planet is getting too choked up with pollutants. We are very big in recycling.

“Finally, we are big in erosion control which you all know is a big problem in the South east because of the nature of the area.”

As part of post-COVID plans, Abubakar said the ministry was working towards reducing emission from generators and vehicles to mitigate the effect of climate change.

“About 4,000 jobs will be created in this area and their main mandate will be to keep tab on emissions including vehicular emissions.

The ministry is also targeting to create 32 jobs from recycling of engine oil from motorcycles and other vehicles to produce diesel, which can in turn be reused.’’