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 a panacea for excellence in strategic leadership. The ambassador made the assertion today at the National Defence College Nigeria while presenting a lecture on strategic leadership to the participants of Course 30/2021 at the college. During the lecture, he enumerated the qualities of a good strategic leader, which included emphasizing the need for a weight control policy to ensure that officers and soldiers are physically, medically, and mentally fit to enable them to perform their jobs optimally.
General Buratai called for the exposure of officers and soldiers to training courses both at home and abroad, inspiring a shared vision and inculcating core values, ethics and standards to improve the performance of the Nigerian Army. When you talk about strategic leadership, so many things come to mind, especially as regards those who could be referred to as strategic leaders.
A strategic leader is the one that has experience, as stated by General Douglas McArthur. In the lecture, which was specifically for the participants of National Defence College Nigeria Course 30/202, he called for the need to improve on innovation as it is the key in order to achieve 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 Nigeria Army a Modern Army. We have made the Nigeria Army professional by introducing many infrastructures like the Nigeria Army Warfare Research. My regret is our not discovering our initiative of MRAP and many war instruments, but we thank God as it has been introduced.
In his response, the commandant, Rear Admiral Bashir, said that General Buratai has unique and practical leadership qualities worthy of emulation. The commandant said that because of these qualities, General Buratai had been selected as one of the strategic leaders to be studied in the college.
Major General Adeniyi Oyebade (Rtd), Brig Gen Sani Usman Kukasheka (Rtd), and Ibrahim Dahiru Danfulani are among those in his entourage.
