By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
The Nigerian Ambassador to Benin Republic, and former Chief of Army Staff, His Excellency, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai (rtd), has advocated for continuous training among the Armed Forces of Nigeria as panacea for excellence in strategic leadership.
The ambassador made the assertion on Friday at the National Defence College Nigeria, while presenting a lecture on Strategic Leadership to the participants of Course 30/2021 of the college.
Durning the lecture, he enumerated qualities of a good strategic leader which includes emphasizing the need for weight control policy to ensure that officers and soldiers are physically, medically and mentally fit to enable them perform their jobs optimally.
General Buratai called for exposing of officers and soldiers to training courses both at home and abroad, inspiring a shared vision to inculcate core values; ethics and standards to improve the performance of the Nigerian Army.
According to him, “when you talk about strategic leadership, so many things come into mind, especially regarding those that could be referred to as strategic leaders. A strategic leader is the one that has experience, as stated by General Douglas McArthur.”
He harped on the need to improve on innovation as it is the key to achieving the vision and goals set to be achieved in every task.
“You must develop the capacity of your officers and men. It would help if you were versatile and adaptive. Every leader aims to get the job done, through exemplary leadership,” he said.
He also added that, “We have made the NIgerian Army a modern army, we have made Nigerian Army to be professional by introducing many infrastructure like the NIgerian Army Warfare Research.
“My regrets is our not discovering our initiative of MRAP and many war instruments but we thank God as it has been introduced,” he added
In his response, the Commandant, Rear Admiral Bashir said that General Buratai has unique and practical leadership worthy of emulation.
The commandant stressed that, “because of these qualities, as such, General Buratai has been selected as one of the strategic leaders to be studied in the college.”
Members of Buratai’s entourage included Major General Adeniyi Oyebade (Rtd), Major Gen Iliya Abba (Rtd), Brig Gen Sani Usman Kukasheka (Rtd) and Ibrahim Dahiru Danfulani.
The lecture was specifically for the participants of National Defence College Nigeria Course 30/2021.
