The National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) has commenced a language proficiency training for officers and men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to enhance their skills and mastery of the three major indigenous Nigerian languages as a panacea to breaking communication barriers during operations, Intelligence gathering and information sharing amongst others.Declaring the program open, the CG NSCDC, Ahmed Abubakar Audi, PhD, mni, described the language training program as very central and germaine to the corporate existence of the Corps as a grassroot security outfit saddled with the onerous responsibilities of protecting lives and securing critical national asset and infrastructure of government.He stated that access to timely information and credible Intelligence gathering which drives most successful security operations requires proper indigenization and integration of officers and men of the Corps in various communities where they find themselves or are deployed for any national assignment.Dr Audi said, aside from protecting government assets and infrastructure, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps as a paramilitary outfit is charged with other mandates of training, licensing, monitoring and supervising private security guard companies as well as disaster management and crisis mitigation, as such, exigency of duty demands versatility and ability to maneuver any challenging situation by any personnel, hence, the need for the collaboration with NICO to have Corps personnel fully trained in Nigerian languages.He further stated that his administration is committed to training and retraining of personnel to enhance professionalism of the service for effective service delivery to the nation while at the same time building a positive culture that will create a unique Identity as a world class elite organisation that protects lives and property of its citizens; “It beholds on all general duty officers who could be posted to any location in the country to acquire requisite knowledge of our indigenous languages as it does not only promote our culture by bringing the officers closer to the people, but it also helps to blend with various communities easily for effective intelligence and information gathering. For instance, the newly established Female Squad have been interfacing and sensitizing students, teachers and parents in different parts of the country; therefore, the knowledge of indigenous languages comes handy in making interactions easy for them while on this assignment”, Audi said.In his address, the Executive Secretary of NICO, Mr Ado Muhammed Yahuza stated that the Nigerian Indigenous Language Programme has come to address the unfortunate and alarming rate at which Nigerian languages are losing relevance in the scheme of things and the threat of its extinction. In this regard, he maintained that indigenous languages is a strategic tool for fostering National Identify, National Consciousness and Integration. He added that the language in the Barracks program has an added benefit of being an invaluable tool for effective intelligence and information gathering by officers and men of the military and para- military agencies, reiterating that with about 13 centers spread across the country, the agency will engage officers and men of the Corps in about 6 States across the federation.SIGNED:DCC OLUSOLA ODUMOSUNSCDC NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, ABUJA.