The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to safeguarding the nation’s critical energy infrastructure, description-tagging close collaboration with key industry players as vital to sustaining national economic stability.
The Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa Gwabin (Rtd), gave the assurance on Thursday during a courtesy visit by the executive leadership of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) to the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
In a statement signed by the Special Assistant to the Minister on Media Leah Katung-Babatunde and made available to Channel Network Afrique, CNA, General Musa emphasized the strategic importance of the gas sector to the nation’s economy, stating, “Nigeria needs gas.” He noted that strategic partnership is the most effective approach to resolving current operational and security bottlenecks plaguing the sector.
To tackle security challenges in the maritime domain, the Minister revealed that a dedicated Maritime Task Force has been established to operate within the Gulf of Guinea. Furthermore, addressing a global slowdown in international arms procurement, General Musa disclosed that Nigeria is shifting its focus toward building local defence production capacity as a sustainable, long-term solution.
”I assure you that we are together, and we are going to give you all the support that you need,” the Minister told the delegation.
Earlier, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NLNG, Leye Falade, expressed gratitude to the Nigerian Armed Forces, particularly the Nigerian Navy, for their role in securing the country’s economic value chain.
Falade highlighted that as a joint venture with majority government shareholding, any disruption to NLNG’s upstream supply chain directly reduces national economic output. He noted that NLNG remains one of Nigeria’s highest corporate taxpayers and is currently executing its Train 7 project to expand production capacity by 35 percent.
”Safeguarding these operations is paramount to balancing the expectations of our shareholders with our national mandate,” Falade said.
The NLNG chief also touched on the socio-economic impact of energy scarcity, noting that a lack of clean cooking alternatives has created a domestic crisis that the company is actively working to alleviate amid surging demand.
The meeting concluded with both the Ministry of Defence and NLNG agreeing to establish closer operational synergy to ensure the security and resilience of the company’s ongoing expansion projects.