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The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, has pointed out that the Nigerian Army has recorded huge success over the years in the grooming of military leaders.
Buratai, made the disclosure while speaking at Mambilla Barracks in Abuja, venue of the ‘Army Headquarters Transformational Workshop’ said that everyone knew that leadership is core to military professionalism; hence all military professional courses include aspects of military leadership skills acquisition.
He further added that, the leadership programmes are mainly designed to build capacities that enhance the intellectual and physical components of a fighting force: the “How” we fight and the “What” we fight with,” .
The COAS further emphasized on reasons why the Nigerian Army sometimes failed to record success in military operations saying that the truth is, almost every setback the NA has had in their operations in recent times can be traced to insufficient willingness to perform assigned tasks, or simply insufficient commitment to a common national/military course by those at the frontlines. “Many of those on whom the responsibility for physical actions against the adversary squarely falls are yet to fully take ownership of our common national or service cause,” he said.
He noted that professional capacity is not a sufficient condition to succeed in a task; willingness to perform the task is equally necessary.
The event, which was organized by the Nigerian Army Department of Transformation and Innovation (DATI) for mid-level officers and soldiers, was themed: “Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way”.
The COAS stated that the workshop, would also establish a platform for subsequent mentoring of participants after the workshop. Hence, the theme has been aptly chosen as “Lead, follow or get out of the way”.
Host of the event, Major General Felix Akubo, revealed that the workshop will work out ways to institutionalize mentorship as a framework for raising leaders, as well as the environment/tools necessary for mentorship in the NA.
Gen. Akubo, who is the Army’s Chief of Transformation and Innovation, further stated that the capacity-building training will expose participants to a number of things in the country which they can take pride in, thus clarifying the imperatives of patriotic citizenship and national loyalty, even in the face of globalization and emerging technologies.
“The workshop aims at highlighting the values of communal surveillance and enforcement, as against the dangers of individualism and sycophancy (eye-service) among military professionals,” He added that plans are already in the pipeline to organize similar workshop in Kaduna, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Maiduguri and Enugu.
