By Ayo Akinfe
Were I in President Tinubu’s shoes, I would unleash the Nigerian Army Engineering Corp on the country with a mandate to spearhead an industrial revival.
[1] Nigerians are not used to seeing their army do community repair works for them. That I am afraid has to change and needs to do so fast
[2] Across Europe, a lot of the post-World War Two reconstruction was actually carried out by the victorious allied armies
[3] Nigeria actually has a well trained engineering corp in its army but we have never really used them before. I would create a civil and a mechanical directorate with a mandate to get Nigeria off her knees
[4] During the rainy season, most of Nigeria’s rural roads are impassable. Why is the Nigerian Army Engineering Corp not on standby to fix such roads
[5] Army tanks, construction diggers and farm tractors are built on the same principle. If any building company suffers a breakdown with any of its Caterpillar diggers, the Nigerian Army should be in hand to effect immediate repairs
[6] Just imagine the economic boost Nigeria would get of say we initiated a public works programme with 20,000 soldiers from the Nigerian Army Engineering Corp
[7] When our gutters overflow or we suffer from the effects of flooding, it should be the Nigerian Army on standby to come to the rescue
[8] What stops the Nigerian Army Engineering Corp from fixing a damaged bridge, airport runway or broken power plant? Nigeria should explore this option to save expensive private repair costs
[9] In an ideal world, the Nigerian Army Engineering Corp, should have been able to fix say the Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri refineries
[10] Left to me, every farmer who owns a tractor should have access to the Nigerian Army Engineering Corp, so he can call them out whenever his machinery breaks down. Just imagine the impact that would have on our agricultural output
