The Minister of Defence, Basic Christopher Gwabin Musa (retd.), has stressed out the will for greater funding in indigenous defence era, native production, synthetic intelligence and strategic partnerships to beef up Nigeria’s nationwide safety and scale back dependence on international resources for vital defence features.
He made the decision on the maiden version of the Defence Futures Summit 2026, themed “Sovereign Virtual Spine and Defence Innovation”, hung on October 14, 2026, on the Armed Forces Tournament and Multipurpose Centre in Asokoro, Abuja.
In a remark, Enderline Chukwu, Deputy Director of Knowledge and Public Family members on the ministry, mentioned Musa described the initiative as a landmark platform for advancing defence innovation, strengthening technological sovereignty and reworking Nigeria’s defence structure. He instructed Nigerians to proceed making planned sacrifices to unite the rustic and give a boost to its technological features.
Musa mentioned that even if data and conversation era, synthetic intelligence and different rising applied sciences had been nonetheless creating inside Nigeria’s defence ecosystem, the rustic possessed the highbrow capability, human assets and leading edge attainable to compete within the evolving international defence setting.
He mentioned the initiative aligned with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Schedule, which seeks to make sure that Nigeria does no longer simply undertake rising defence applied sciences however actively contributes to shaping the way forward for defence features. He added that it mirrored the management’s dedication to strengthening nationwide safety, innovation and self-reliance.
The minister mentioned “the summit was once conceived as one of the crucial projects aimed toward reworking Nigeria’s safety structure and positioning the rustic to watch for rising threats relatively than simply react to adjustments within the personality of recent struggle”.
He defined, “Nigeria’s technique will have to due to this fact lengthen past standard army {hardware} to surround the data device and technological infrastructure required to improve trendy army operations.”
He reiterated that Nigeria may just no longer come up with the money for to stay without end depending on exterior resources for vital defence applied sciences, calling for sustained funding in human capability construction, native innovators, defence industries and analysis establishments.
Musa mentioned collaboration with the personal sector was once very important to development a resilient defence business base in a position to translating Nigerian ingenuity into operational features for the defense force.
He expressed self assurance that Nigeria possessed the ability, ambition {and professional} technology required to force defence innovation in step with global requirements.
He pledged the ministry’s dedication to supporting projects that beef up indigenous capability, inspire technological innovation and advance efforts against a extra resilient and self-reliant defence sector.
Previous, in his opening remarks, the founder and convener of the Defence Futures Summit, retired Colonel Felix Alaita, mentioned the summit underscored the will for a complete Defence Renewal Structure linking the country’s safety priorities with business construction, analysis establishments, private-sector experience and the ingenious attainable of younger Nigerians.
“The initiative is designed to give a boost to operational readiness, beef up institutional responsibility and advertise the accountable adoption of era in addressing Nigeria’s evolving safety demanding situations” he added.
Alaita additional said that the Defence Renewal Structure was once anchored on 4 pillars: bettering operational readiness and safety reaction; strengthening the indigenous defence business; making an investment in human capital and formative years construction; and strengthening social figuring out and the ingenious economic system.
He known as for more potent collaboration a few of the govt, business, academia and global companions to advertise indigenous era in production, power, battery construction and airplane manufacturing, leveraging the experience of the Air Pressure Institute of Generation.
Alaita additionally stressed out the will for formative years empowerment, abilities construction, task advent and knowledge-sharing. He instructed members to suggest sensible answers to Nigeria’s demanding situations and make sure that discussions translated into concrete movements and measurable results.