The Chief of Army Staff, (COAS), Lt Gen Tukur Buratai on Monday in Lagos tasked Commanding Officers of the force to use their experiences on the job training to tackle the menence of kidnapping, pipeline vandalism, smuggling and terrorism.
While declaring open a five-day training workshop for officers of the Nigerian Army at the 81 Division Officers Mess in Marina, reminded them that as the country is been confronted by security challenges daily, there were no sterotyped approach on how to confront it.
Rather, they should use on the job training experience, noting that the challenges are not the same but use the opportunity of workshops like this to rub minds and know how others are tackling it.
The Chief of Army, who was represented by Maj Gen Mohammed Mohammed, the Corp Commander, Nigerian Army Signals noted that commanding officers in the Nigerian Army are at the forefront in the security challenges but must do everything within their powers to mitigate them.
According to him, “As a commanding officer, you must understand that action time is so limited but requires a lot of training and workshops of this nature to appraise comtemporary issues and how to go about them.
“May I state that the training workshop are routinely organised for officers of various cadres which is aimed at broadening the procedures and processes to ensure that your competencies are enhenced in line with security challenges.
Speaking further on the relevance of the theme of the workshop: To Enhence Leadership as a Prerequisite for Nigerian ArmyTransformation to meet Contemporary challenges,” observed that Nigerian Army attaches so much importance to leadership.
“Therefore, leadership has a style and this workshop is for you to also learn from your contemporaries how to apply leadership skills in your various units.
“The security challenges such as kidnapping, smuggling, pipeline vandalism as well as terrorism confronts you on daily basis. Consequently, the response to these have no sterotyped approach on how to confront it but based on your areas of experiences, the challenges are not the same but in workshops like this, you are able to rub minds and know how others are tackling it.
“You may be aware that these are series of approached by the Nigerian Army in training our officers and men. Since the coming on board of the Chief of Army Staff in line with his vision, that direct us to be responsive and professional, we have been engaging and exercising all over the country.
“We find ourselves as first responders which we have no choice but we must partake. So, all the various operations: “Pathon Dance”; “Crocodile Smile” and others are all ongoing, geared at sharpening our skills.
“You as commanding officers, it is our responsibility entrusted in you as the first and foremost responders. Therefore, you must understand the enormous responsibility reposed in you.
With officers with lots of responsibilities, charges them to “be mindful of being impartial abitter among the host communities you superintend over adding that the Army headquarters would continue to improve on the logistics support in every operation you would be engaged in.
While appreciating the invaluable support of other security agencies, Gen Buratai reiterated that “The successes recorded so far in all our operations and exercises are not without the support from other security agencies. We would continue to work with them and synergize in order to have a conducive atmosphere for all Nigerians to live in peace
“I urge you to use this workshop to add value to your experiences and I believe at the end of the day, the vision and mission of this workshop would have been achieved. By extension, the participants would have more in their kitty that would add valve to your units and area of responsibility
In his welcoming remarks, the General Officer Commanding, (GOC)
81 Division, Nigerian Army, Maj Gen Musa Yusuf explained that the workshop was one of the series of training activities designed by the Army Headquarters to enhence and build the capacity of the Commanding Officers’ of the Nigerian Army.
In addition, the GOC emphasized that it was to enhence officers’ professional responsiveness in the discharge of the constitutional roles in consonance with the COAS vision as well as enhence operational and administrative competence to effectively tackle dynamic situations and myraid of challenges facing your respective Area of Responsibilities.
Gen Yusuf while expressing confidence on the assemblage of resource persons, noted that at the end of the workshop, “it is expected that the series of lectures would broaden your horizons especially those of you engaged in Internal Security operations
The five-day workshop have Officers especially the rank of Lieutenant Colonels and Majors drawn from three divisions to include 2 Division, Ibadan; 81 Division, Lagos and 82 Division, Enugu in the Nigerian Army participating in the first Commanding Officers Workshop 2019.