TOWARDS SELF-RELIANCE IN DEFENCE PRODUCTION

Besides providing technical expertise, the DICON Institute of Technology will significantly reduce Nigeria’s reliance on foreign sources for critical defence capabilities, argues  JACK OKUDE The Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, is passionately pushing a President Tinubu agenda on national security. On Wednesday, July 29, 2026, Matawalle, was in Kaduna to inaugurate the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) Institute of Technology. The trip was without fanfare but it was loud on implications for President Tinubu’s iron-cast resolve to fight and overawe insecurity in the country. It bears restating that Matawalle, a ardent ally of President Tinubu, has been very active in promoting the Tinubu government. He has been discreet in strategy as the government rallies to tame the bogey of insecurity. For context, the institute was established as part of the Federal Government’s efforts to achieve self-reliance in defence production through the building and sustenance of a viable military industrial complex within the country. The institute will not only provide the requisite technical expertise for the design, development and sustenance of platforms and systems critical for the security of the nation, it will significantly reduce Nigeria’s reliance on foreign sources for critical defence capabilities including technical capacities and relevant 21st century skill sets for the nation’s security personnel. For decades, Nigeria has relied on foreign technical and technological assistance to defend its territorial integrity and ensure internal security for the citizenry. This has obvious implications on the sovereignty of the nation. It has also over the years put enormous pressure on the naira as all the imported arms and ammunition including high-end military hardware and training of security personnel overseas are procured with forex. The establishment of the institute, therefore, is not only a landmark but a paradigm shift for the nation’s indigenous defence industrial base especially in the area of capacity building and professional counterterrorism training. In modern warfare, possession of defence infrastructure is no longer enough. Strategy and intelligence innovation have become inevitable resources to place a nation at the cutting edge of any war or security threat. Without strategic thinking, communication cum surveillance gadgets, and innovative positioning, the physical defence infrastructure could become articles for decoration. The operators of such physical defence infrastructure, if they lack the requisite knowhow on how to handle the military hardware, may consistently strike amiss resulting in waste of personnel and money. This is why critical skills set and strategy have become strong combinations in modern warfare. This is the essence of DICON and its Institute: To produce not only defence infrastructure including guns and drones and all, but also to mint the right manpower drilled in the foundry of operational efficiency and strategy. It is called specialized security training in counterterrorism lingo. It means to not only equip but also to train your security personnel in the art and craft of counterinsurgency operations, bomb disposal techniques, hostage rescue stunts, and crisis/conflict management. These are some of the capacities to be built into Nigerian security personnel and others in the Institute. Th DICON institute is inaugurated with the full awareness that counter-terrorism does not consist only in military-style kinetics of physical offensive and violent efforts to exterminate the opponent, it also involves non-kinetic approaches including enlightenment and re-orientation of the terrorists to wean them of terror traits and evil behavioural patterns. Other non-kinetics methods include financial squeeze and deliberate blockade of the financial sources of the terrorists and in some cases cyber weakening of the terrorists’ camp through cyber-attacks and other tech-driven techniques that shuts down their ability to communicate and engage effectively in electronic transactions. Matawalle is confident that the Institute will provide extra layer of intelligence reconnaissance for the Nigerian military. Before the inauguration of the institute, DICON itself has been involved in the production of small arms from pistols to rifles. Other DICON products include a range of ammunition, Amoured personnel carriers (APC), built-for-purpose tactical military vehicles, ballistic vests and sundry protective garments. It is a growing list and a clear attestation to the engineering proficiency of the nation’s military personnel. Earlier this year, UNICCON Group, a software and AI tech-savvy company, and DICON Venture partnered with DICON to launch AI-powered kamikaze drones and anti-drone detection systems. Spurred by the DICON Act 2023, the corporation has partnered wit

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