By Philip Nwosu
Nigerian Army has harped on the importance of producing well-trained commanders that will effectively confront the prevailing security challenges in the country.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Faruk Yahaya, who made the statement at the opening of the first senior command leadership seminar for 2023, organised by 81 Division, said the myriad of security challenges the country is facing require commanders and leaders to be equipped with the requisite knowledge to tackle the problem.
The army chief, who was represented by the Commander Corps of Signals, Garba Abdullahi, said the seminar was in tandem with his vision of having “a professional army ready to accomplish assigned mission within a joint environment in the defence of Nigeria.”
Yahaya said the seminar would also avail participants the necessary capabilities and competencies required to successfully accomplish assigned missions, as it relates to emerging security threats.
“The topics and resource persons have been carefully selected and designed to reflect current realities on ground as well as to enable participants to derive maximum benefits from the seminar.
“Accordingly, the seminar has been deliberately tailored to focus on leadership at command levels, intelligence gathering, military decision making process, logistics planning, legal implications and human rights issues among others.
“As we continue to implement the Nigerian Army forecast of events and training directive for 2023, I implore you to seize the opportunity of this seminar to improve on your knowledge of leadership,” he said.
The COAS said he expected that at the end of the seminar, the set objectives would have been met to enable them discharge their constitutional roles professionally.
“The dynamic and ever changing security situation in the country requires that the Nigerian Army equip leaders, at all levels, with the requisite capabilities to face these challenges, especially in a complex environment.
“I, therefore, urge you to apply yourselves to all that will be taught by tapping from the wealth of knowledge and experiences of the resource persons,” he said.
Yahaya thanked officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army for their professional conduct during the recently concluded general election in the country.
“Your actions enabled the citizens to freely exercise their civic responsibilities. I am, indeed, proud of you,” he said.