The Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), has said it has reviewed its curriculum to meet temporary threats facing the country.
The academy said the personnel who graduated many years ago were not used to the current emerging threats facing the country.
“We sat down to review the curriculum to meet the current trend of insurgency and emerging threats facing the nation in other to better equip the Cadets, so that when they are commissioned into the Nigerian Army, they will hit the ground running, the Commandant of the Academy, Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Manu Yusuf said on Friday in Jos at Exercise Camp Highland.
Exercise Camp Highland is a training ground for the Cadets at Shere Hills in Jos. Its a requisite for the Cadets of the Academy to pass through it before graduation and commissioning into the Nigerian Army, our correspondent reports.
“We bring the Cadets here to implore their social skills, physical abilities and their cognitive skills as part of the overall development of training of the Cadets”, the NDA boss said while addressing Journalists at the exercise ground.
He continued: “The challenges confronting the country in the past few years were not the usual challenges the army was trained to confront in years past. Because of these emerging challenges, we have taken lessons from the operation in the field and we have used these lessons to review the curriculum so that the Cadets upon graduation will hit the ground running because they would have been equipped with all the skills and competencies they require in line with the contemporary challenges in the country.
“All the Cadets you see here have the capacity to jump out of an aircraft with their parachutes and carryout operations because they have all received their training and are capable of operating in any river line area.
“Each of them you see here can swim with their rifle and boots to any location and conduct operations”, Yusuf said.
He reiterated that there will be no safe haven for trouble shooters who do not want the country to be in peace by the time the current army cadets are integrated into the Nigeria Army.
On his part, the Coordinator, Citizenship and Leadership Training Center Shere Hills, Abdulmumuni Adamu, said the cadets will train in Shere Hills for five days and will undergo courses ranging from physical, mental, adventure and technical courses which will make them actively agile to fight insurgency.
“The exercise is designed to test the Cadets Leadership skills, Physical fitness, Map Reading, Command and Control capabilities among other military competencies”, Adamu said.
Recounting their experience, Cadets Magdalene Hassan and Abraham Itodo said they are excited to be part of the ongoing training, pledging commitment to dedicate their acquired skills to the service of the country.
Our correspondent gathered that the Exercise Camp Highland is for 70 Regular Course Army Cadets.