The Director-General, Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), retired Maj.-Gen. Garba Wahab, says physical fitness of soldiers is imperative to achieving successful military engagements and operations.
Wahab said this at the closing of the Maiden Strategic and Leadership Training Workshop of the Directorate of Army Physical Training (DAPT), on Thursday in Abuja.
He enjoined all officers and soldiers of the Nigerian army to always strive to be fit, able and ready to do their jobs effectively.
He said that physical fitness was a critical requirement in the selection and deployment of troops for operations, adding that physical fitness of personnel affects his or her mental fitness.
“You cannot perform without being physically fit and that is the standard in the armed forces generally and for the army in particular, especially the land forces.
“It is based on physical fitness because in whatever you do, you must be ready and physically fit for you to be able to perform and that is the challenge for the corps.
“Individual soldiers have the responsibility to look after themselves. You don’t have to wait for somebody to come and tell you to be fit because you make yourself to be fit.
“The military discriminates in picking those who come in because they need the best to be able to secure the system and the country and that is the challenge the members of the armed forces have,” he said.
Wahab urged the military high command to ensure that standard procedures were adhered to in ensuring that all officers and soldiers were physically and mentally fit before enlistment.
He said the directorate of physical training was created to enforce that aspect of physicality, urging them to rise up to the standard.
The seminar was aimed at mapping out strategies on how to monitor, evaluate and measure the performance of the directorate. (NAN)
