The Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), held the Graduation Ceremony for the participants of Strategic Management and Policy Studies (SMPS) Course 4/2021 at the NARC Conference Hall C, Abuja.
In his Farewell address, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant General Faruq Yahaya expressed his honour and delight to warmly welcome members of the Nigerian Army Resource Centre Board of Trustees, and other special dignitaries to the momentous occasion. He congratulated the graduands of the SMPSC 4/21 for successfully completing this unique 45 Weeks Programme. He said the desire for human capacity development and the need to fill a noticeable gap in the top echelon of senior officers of the Nigerian Army (NA) led to the idea of establishing this course.
He further, commended the Director General, NARC and his team for the efforts made in ensuring the successful conduct of this Programme. “I wish to highly appreciate our sister services and other strategic agencies of government who have been subscribing to the Course since the Maiden Edition in 2018”, he said.
Furthermore, “Let me seize this opportunity to thank the President and Commander-in-Chief for the drive and direction given to the NA, which has enabled the service implement its training activities successfully. Therefore, I wish to pledge the commitment and unalloyed loyalty of officers and men of the NA to the President in defence of our democracy.
I hope that the additional knowledge you have gained will be put to proper use for your personal benefit and that of your various organizations, the country and humanity at large”, he said.
Earlier, the Director General NARC, Major General Garba Ayodeji Wahab (Rtd) expressed his appreciation to the Board of Trustees for their approval and unalloyed support towards the success of the programme.
In the same vein, the Staff Officer Grade Two NARC, Major O Anifowhoshe highlighted that the graduands of SMPSC 4/22 who have succeeded in drinking from the fountain of knowledge were made up of 43 participants which comprised of 22 Major Generals, 2 Brigadier Generals and 3 Colonel from the Nigerian Army. While others are 2 Commodore from the Nigerian Navy, 1 Deputy Commissioner from the Nigerian Police, 2 Deputy Comptroller from Nigerian Custom Services, 5 Assistant Directors from the Defence Intelligence Agency, 2 Assistant Directors from the Department of State Services, 2 Deputy Corps Commanders from the Federal Road Safety Corps as well as 2 Deputy Directors from National Youth Service Corps.
He emphasised that the SMPSC philosophy is anchored on enhancing the appreciation and application of strategic management and policy process, management of resources and policy engagement among senior military officers and their counterparts in strategic agencies of government , hence the idea of building human capacity by the various organisations is in tandem with global trend.
The SMPSC is the Centre’s flagship programme in human resource development as part of the series of manpower development courses for attainment of professionalism in the NA. This is in line with the Chief of Army Staff Vision which is to have “A Professional Nigerian Army ready to accomplish assigned mission within a joint environment in defence of Nigeria”
It is also worthy to mention that, as part of the Centre’s collaboration with the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), the graduands having been found worthy in character and learning will be awarded Master’s Degrees in Strategic Management and Policy Studies by the NDA during a joint convocation ceremony later this year.
High point of the ceremony was the presentation of certificate to the course participants and group photograph.
