The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, said the contemporary security environment would continue to change and that yesterday’s solutions might not adequately address tomorrow’s challenges.
Lieutenant General Shaibu made this assertion during the graduation ceremony of the Leadership and Strategic Studies Course 4/25 at the prestigious Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) in Abuja.
The Special Guest of Honour told the graduands that their graduation came at a time when the demands on military leadership were becoming increasingly complex.
According to him, “Today’s security environment is characterised by terrorism, insurgency, banditry, transnational organised crime, cyber threats, information warfare and the growing influence of emerging technologies. These threats intersect with wider political, economic and social dynamics, making military problems increasingly difficult to address through military means alone.”
The Army Chief noted that the Nigerian Army required officers who could look beyond immediate tactical problems, understand their wider implications and develop innovative responses that integrated both kinetic and non-kinetic instruments.
He said, “This is precisely where the relevance of your course becomes evident. The combination of leadership studies, strategy, research, policy analysis and experience-sharing should enable you to approach complex problems with greater intellectual rigour and strategic awareness. You must therefore bring these competencies to bear to complement ongoing efforts to anticipate, prevent and counter threats to our national security.
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“I am particularly pleased that the course was structured to combine theoretical instruction with practical case studies, research and professional experience-sharing.
“This approach provided you with opportunities to interrogate contemporary defence and security challenges, test established assumptions and relate academic concepts to your considerable field experience. More importantly, it should have strengthened your capacity to analyse problems objectively, identify viable options and provide well-considered strategic advice to commanders and decision-makers.”
Earlier, in his welcome address, the Director General of NARC, Major General James Myam (rtd), explained that the Leadership and Strategic Studies Course was designed as an 11-month programme in partnership with the Postgraduate School of the Nigerian Defence Academy to provide selected officers with high-level professional and academic education.
The course, he said, provided participants with the opportunity to critically examine the security challenges confronting Nigeria while equipping them with the requisite strategic knowledge and skills to respond effectively to these challenges.
He said, “The course was initiated following a training gap for this category of officers identified by Army Headquarters. Accordingly, the programme was fashioned around the whole spectrum of interrelated and interconnected issues of leadership, strategy and national security.”
He tasked the course participants with translating the knowledge and skills acquired during the course into tangible, knowledge-driven outcomes wherever they found themselves.
Giving the course highlights, the Director of Human Resources at the Centre, Brigadier General John Majebi, revealed that the objectives of the course included equipping participants with an understanding of the relationship between military leadership, strategy and national security.
“It also seeks to familiarise participants with military leadership, foreign policy and administration, and their implications for national security. It also stimulates participants’ capacity for policy analysis, argumentation and evaluation,” he said.
He concluded that the course was conducted across eight broad thematic areas: leadership and management; policy and strategy; research methodology; psychology; national security and defence economics; entrepreneurship; peace support operations; and logistics planning.
