By Sumaila Ogbaje
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Taoreed Lgbaja, has challenged top military and security agencies to embrace adaptation and ingenuity in tackling the recurring security challenges confronting Nigeria.
Lagbaja gave the charge at the graduation of the participants of the Strategic Management and Policy Studies Course 6/2023 of the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) on Friday in Abuja.
The COAS was represented by the Chief of Training (Army), Maj.-Gen. Sani Mohammed, at the event.
Lagbaja said the course was designed as part of the Nigerian army’s drive to develop and improve on human capital to tackle the complex security challenges confronting the nation.
He said the objectives of the programme were hinged on enhancing knowledge, skills and competences of participants to enable them formulate, implement and evaluate policies as well as manage human and material resources.
According to him, the idea of building human capacity by the various organisations is in tandem with global trend and a necessity for the domestic challenges they are all managing.
“Capacity development is also very crucial for any organisation that intends on one hand to be relevant and on the other has a vision for growth or any with the aspiration of producing positive impact in the ever evolving and dynamic modern environment.
“Indeed, the key concepts of strategy, leadership, management and policy have all become recurring indexes in the daily activities of all organisations.
“Thus, as strategic leaders and members of the top echelon of your Services and Agencies, you are expected to continually articulate these concepts at the back of your minds.
“This is to enable you to effectively harness the human and material resources in the organisation and particularly those directly under your control for positive performance,’’ he said.
The COAS urged the participants to practicalise the knowledge acquired at the centre to effectively and efficiently steer the ship of their various organisations in the unpredictable human society.
He charged, “This programme has therefore given you the tool for adaptation and thinking out-of- the-box.”
The former Chief of Army Staff, retired Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazau, said the 11 months training had brought out a variety of capacity in the participants.
Dambazau said that security had a wide angle that required the collaboration of the military will all other security agencies, adding that different sectors had one role or the other to play in terms of security.
He said that security also had both the kinetic and non-kinetic, which involved the combination of the use of force and other means to be able to guarantee a safe environment.
`So, I believe that each participant of this course is armed enough with the information and training to be able to perform better,’’ he said.
The Director-General, NARC, retired Maj.-Gen. Garba Wahab, said the course participants had been challenged to be able to analyse policies and outcome,
Wahab said the essence of the course was all about how to proffer to prevailing challenges with both intended and unintended consequences.
He said that such challenges include the problem of protests in Nigeria and other parts of the world like the one in Bangladesh and in the UK.
“We were able to practicalise what we are teaching in class and it is not just about coming around to acquire knowledge, it is the practicality.
“It is time for us to start working with stretching arms across boundaries and there shouldn’t be any boundary when you are talking about societal approach,’’ he said.
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