The Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), has held a Graduation Ceremony for the participants of Strategic Management and Policy Studies (SMPS) Course 3/2020 at the NARC Conference Hall C, Abuja after 11 months of intensive training.
In his Farewell address, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) who was represented by the Chief of Policy and Plans (Army) Major General Anthony Omozoje 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 3/20 for successfully completing this unique 11 months 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 their efforts 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 this Course since the Maiden Edition in 2018”, he said.
Furthermore, “Let me seize this opportunity to thank the President and Commander-in-Chief of 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 and in the 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 organisations, 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 Director of Human Resource Development NARC, Brigadier General UM Bello highlighted that the graduands of SMPSC 3/20 who have succeeded in drinking from the fountain of knowledge were made up of 22 participants which comprised of 4 Major Generals and 4 Brigadier Generals from the Nigerian Army. While others are 1 Commodore from the Nigerian Navy, 2 Colonels, 1 Captain from the Nigerian Navy, 1 Deputy Comptroller from Nigerian Custom Services, 5 Assistant Directors from the Defence Intelligence Agency, 2 Assistant Directors from the Department of State Services as well as 2 Deputy Corps Commanders from the Federal Road Safety 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 of mention that, as part of the Centre’s collaboration with the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), the graduands having been found worthy in character and in learning will be awarded Master’s Degrees in Strategic Management and Policy Studies by the NDA during a joint convocation ceremony later this year.
The high point of the occasion was the award of certificates and conferment of award of Fellowship and Membership of the NARC on the graduands. Prior, to the graduation ceremony, the NARC on Thursday 5 August held a Graduation Luncheon to celebrate the participants at the NARC Foyer.
LCpl Augustine Nwoba
