The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya, on 8 November 2022 inaugurated Leadership and Strategic Studies Course 1/2022 at Hall C, TY Buratai Block of the Centre in Abuja.
In his inaugural address, the COAS reaffirmed the commitment of the service to the training and re-training of Army personnel to enhance their performance.
Yahaya said that the course was targeted at training senior officers of Direct Regular Combatant, to prepare them for the enormous task ahead. He added that the training was the first to be organised by the Nigerian Army to acquaint the senior officers on the current dynamics of the security challenges in the country. The COAS said that training and re-training of all personnel was key to the survival and operations of the military. “Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Army to train all its personnel, irrespective of their commission.
“Hitherto, we have not been doing it for the Direct Regular Course, but now from the experience we have had that played out recently, we have seen the compelling need to train everyone so that we can operate together effectively.
“That is the essence of the training, to enable the officers irrespective of their ranks, for optimal performance,“ he said.
Yahaya said that similar training was going on in the Nigerian Army College of Logistics, Lagos, where officers in the ranks of Captains and Majors were undergoing same training.
According to him, time has come, where irrespective of any officer’s rank, there will be well processed level of training that they will undergo commensurate with those of combatant officers.
The COAS added that all these efforts were geared towards making personnel of the service more equipped with the contemporary military realities and how to go about them in the discharge of their responsibilities. He therefore urged the participants to make sure that the knowledge gained from the training was translated into their day to day activities as military officers.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Director General (DG) of the centre, Major General Garba Wahab (Rtd), said that the training had become imperative bearing in mind the myriad of security challenges facing the country.
The DG noted that emphasis had been on conmbatant officers because of the type of crisis the country was facing. “Today, the security challenges the country is facing does not distinguish between a combatant officer and who is not a combatant officer, so, everybody must be trained. That is why we are clamouring for all Nigerians to be involved in the security architecture, that is, in intelligence gathering,“ he said.
The DG added that the essence of the course was to have a balanced training for senior officers and other ranks. He said that at the end of the training, participants would have been well equipped to face the current realities in securing the country.
