Abuja, 25^TH February 2020.The Final Planning Conference (FPC) of the ECOWAS Command Post Exercise (CPX) began on the 25th of February 2020 in Abuja, Nigeria.

The FPC is meant to finalize both the construct, plan as well as real life support and a review of the completed staff work since the commencement of the earlier main conference in 2018.

In his opening remarks at the at start of the conference, the ECOWAS Commission’s Director, Peacekeeping and Regional Security Dr Cyriaque Agnekethom opined that the activity was an important milestone in the planning process for the execution of the Command Post Exercise, leading to the CPX of the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF) code named Exercise Jiguii IV.

Since it is aimed at sustaining the full operational readiness of the ESF, Dr. Agnekethom pointed out that the conference presents “an opportunity to make things right” with the necessary re-evaluation and updating before the commencement of the Exercise of the ESF in March 2020.

More significantly, he said the Command Post Exercise is being undertaken to ensure that the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF) is operationally ready to respond to present and future deployment scenarios taking into account the security threats being faced by our region.

Furthermore, he noted that it is also an opportunity to test the capability of the ESF to conduct operational and strategic level planning for multidimensional operations and to exercise command and control of deployed forces on a simulated ECOWAS/AU mandated Peace Support Operations.

The conference is poised to develop host nation and host institution support being an important requirement of the Maputo five-year strategic work plan of the African Standby Force (ASF).

Speaking in this regard, the Commandant of the Nigerian National Defence College Rear Admiral M.M Kadriri, represented by the Provost of the institution Amb Chidoke Wigwe pledged the commitment of the National Defence College to sustainable cooperation with ECOWAS and the African Union in the organization of programmes towards the engagement of stakeholders who are involved in Peace Support Operations (PSOs).

The Representative of the implementers of the programme, the Deutshe Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Mr. Leonardo Steinfeld expressed satisfaction with the commitment of all the participants in the exercise while thanking the host country, the Nigerian National Defence College as well as participants for their steadfastness.

The programme is funded by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union (EU).

Apart from the adoption of an Exercise plan the 3-Day conference is expected to produce real-Life Support as well as communication and Information System (CIS) plan, among others.