DICON: Buhari’s Shot In The Arm Revives A Slumbering Giant

Without mincing words, it is indisputable that the military all over the world is a symbol of national pride, strength, valour, resilience and power. Nigerian military is not left out in this global vision.

While the hallmark of the military include, but not limited to patriotism, tact, discipline, selfless national service, the military is a repository of knowledge which has broken grounds in several scientific and technological innovations aimed at sustaining national growth and development in defence, security, aeronautics, medicine, agriculture and ICT among others.

No wonder, the need to partly anchor Nigeria’s ship of Industrialisation on the military at inception was part of a deliberate plan to place Nigeria on the path to industrial growth and development.

The Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, DICON was established by an Act of Parliament in 1964 with the responsibility of driving this plan of industrial revolution. As a result, a West German collaborating firm, Fritz Werner was assigned the task of providing technical expertise and setting up of the first Ordnance Factory for the Nigerian military in Kaduna in 1964.

Incidentally, the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970, popularly called the Biafra war boosted the production levels of arms and ammunition at that time.

The war time opportunity afforded the corporation a platform to make significant impact to the war efforts.

After the war in 1970, the domestic lucrative arms market for DICON came to a halt. Consequently, DICON took a detour of its original roles to remain in business and embraced diversification by venturing into the production of civilian goods like rural water supply equipment, industrial spare parts, furniture for sale and domestic iodised salt for human consumption.

After over 56 years of existence, the lone question Nigerians keep asking is: has DICON lived up to its expectations? Industry watchers and stakeholders are of the unanimous view that though a lot has been done, DICON cannot favourably compete with its peers like the Indian Defence Research Development Organisation.

Many reasons can be adduced to its poor performance over the years due to paucity of funds to drive production and research, to leadership and political will of succeeding governments to give it a push to perform optimally.

However the coming of President President Buhari in 2015 changed the narrative.

The appointment of a miliary historian but an engineer by vocation, General Ezugwu as Director General, saw the initiation of the design and production of prototypes variants of light, tactical patrol as well as armoured fighting vehicles by DICON-CED Kaduna.

With funding from the federal government and interest shown in growth of DICON by the military and a new oxygen bank, new spark and lease of life has been injected into the corporation. There is an ongoing revival in DICON. With his penchant for leaving a trail and creating a path where there was none, inspired by President Buhari’s directive and support, General Ezugwu has brought to bear his commitment, wealth of experience and professionalism in driving the affairs of the corporation.

Building on President Buhari’s directives to the Ministry of Defence and Defence Headquarters to urgently articulate the establishment of a military Industrial Complex to produce weapons and other equipment for the country’s Armed Forces and reduce reliance on reluctant foreign suppliers, the Corporation has since swung into action.

Production lines have been revived beyond 90%, thus the factory coming on full stream. Abandoned production lines for the manufacturing of ammunitions and high powered pistols, among others, were restored by the corporation.

There is also an established unmanned aerial vehicle workshop and a ground breaking ceremony of  DICON-SUR Corporate Wear Nigeria Limited: a collaborative effort at building the biggest garment factory in Africa at DICON Ordinance factory.

In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, DICON rose to the ocassion by producing ventilators, face shields, face masks and quality hand sanitizers.

DICON in conjunction with the Ministry of Science and Technology and other relevant agencies should step up collaboration that will take Nigeria to that next level of the desired industrial revolution.

Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, DICON is to partner with NEXTER Group of France, a francophone company into production of military hardware, to produce hardware so as to meet the defence needs of the Nigeria’s armed forces and other security agencies.

Since the initial responsibility of DICON is the production of defense equipment,  it has since metamorphosed into production of civilian products in line with its agenda of rebranding and growing with future challenges.

 

Musa ilallah

EMEKA ANYAOKU STREET, ABUJA musahk123@yahoo.com

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