The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Saturday said the Nigerian Army headquarters had adopted holistic approach in addressing the infrastructural decay in its barracks and other institutions across the country.
Buratai said this while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after inaugurating two newly built blocks of hostels for students of the Nigerian Army School of Artillery in Kachia, Kaduna State.
He said the infrastructure gap in the barracks were such that required consistent intervention over a period of time for the situation to be improved.
Buratai said the present Army command under his watch had embarked on massive renovation of existing structures as well as the construction of new buildings to ameliorate the situation in the barracks.
He said a number of dilapidated structures in barracks spread across the country had been renovated while many others had been earmarked for rehabilitation as soon as possible.
Buratai said the situation transcended barracks accommodation, adding that other challenges included lack of access roads, poor water supply as well as poor electricity supply.
According Buratai, the situation will require gradual approach according to available resources.
“You can see that these two blocks of hostel accommodation commissioned today will go a long way to meet the needs of the students of this institution.
“The requirement is huge nationwide and that is why we have adopted a holistic approach; here in Kachia, renovation of other dilapidated buildings will commence immediately.
“We just commissioned some blocks for soldiers in Jaji yesterday and in the past two to three months we have renovated and constructed new blocks for soldiers and officers’ accommodation in different barracks across the country.
“We have intervened in barracks in Jos, Lagos, Bauchi, Taraba, Maiduguri, Enugu, Minna and some other states, and work in many other barracks will commence soon, ’’ he said.
Buratai said that the military high command was extending the same attention it had given to infrastructural development to equipment upgrade and manpower development.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Chief of Amy Staff had in the past two months inaugurated about 20 infrastructural development projects for officers and soldiers in different barracks and institutions across the country. (NAN)