Obasanjo gave the hint last week at the closing ceremony of a one-week Nigerian Army training at the newly “revived” Army Training Centre, Kontagora in Niger state.

He gave the names of the countries as Cote d’ Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.

The president said that the role of the military should not necessarily be that of waging wars, but maintaining peace globally like what happened in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

“We may have to send troops to these countries in addition to what we have in other African countries and the Middle East. I believe that our soldiers are equal to the task,’’ he said.

Obasanjo charged the soldiers to be ready for non-war operations which would involve making and keeping peace, saying that the military training should focus on world peace.

“Our training, equipment and preparations should be geared toward ensuring peace the world over,’’ he said.

Obasanjo promised that the training centre which was abandoned for a long time would be equipped to ensure professionalism in the Nigerian Army.

He said that in democracy the function of the military was to ensure defence and security as well as to make and keep peace in conflict areas.

In his address, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Martin-Luther Agwai, said that it was part of Nigerian Army’s plan to ensure realistic training at unit and formation levels.

Agwai said that the headquarters decided to revive the Kontagora training center while various levels of equipment and logistics would be centralised there.

He said that formations and units would be required to take turns to camp and use the centre for various exercises.

Agwai said that when fully developed the centre, which was acquired in 1996, would provide ideal setting for realistic training, which, he noted, had been neglected for so long.

He said that the end result would be a well trained, highly skilled, more disciplined, motivated and competent cadre of officers and soldiers.

Agwai further pledged the continued loyalty of the Nigerian Army to the growth and stability of the nation’s democracy and to uphold the tenets of human rights and the rule of law.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the exercise was code-named “Exercise New Dawn’’.