Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi has tasked the new graduands of the Naval War College on security.
He gave the charge during the graduation ceremony held to mark the completion of Naval Warfare Course 5, which was attended by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, who represented the Defence Minister.
Major General Magashi, commended the 22 officers who were conferred as Fellows of the Naval War College for successfully completing the course, which was designed to develop the capacity of the personnel to meet current security challenges.
“You are expected to play your role by employing all that you have been taught during the course. The training outcomes must be evident in your capacity. I am also confident that you have imbibed practical and pragmatic approaches to overcoming security threats to our corporate existence as a nation.
“It is my belief that you will uphold standards learned and develop capacity to contribute the best to overcome current and future security challenges. It is your responsibility to understand and situate yourselves in the complexities of the global contemporary security environment,” the Minister charged.
Citadel of Excellence
According to him, the Naval War College was established to conduct operational level training with the objective of exposing officers to command and leadership levels of warfare.
He noted “The place of war colleges in military training architecture is gaining more prominence globally as a citadel of excellence for military professionalism and operational level training. I am impressed that in 5 years of establishing, the Naval War College, it has imbibed global best practices and universal values.“
While encouraging more collaborations amongst existing war colleges and the armed forces, the Minister affirmed “The complex nature of contemporary threats demand that we leverage the strength of each service to achieve the strategic objectives of securing our nation.”
He assured the armed forces of President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolve to continuously support the military to meet the task of national security and territorial integrity.
He also pledged the commitment of the Defence Ministry to enhance the requisite capacity development of the military to tackle security challenges.
The Commandant of the Naval War College, Rear Admiral Murtala Bashir said that the 22 graduates passed through what he described as the factory and have completed Course 5.
Rear Admiral Bashir said that the officers were ready to be deployed to the field to contribute their quota to the various operations, noting “They have been adequately prepared to undertake higher-level operational tasks and missions.”
The commandant expressed confidence that the officers would “Make a difference and add value to the various operations” and further charged them to “Go out there and be good ambassadors of the college. You need to make us proud because we believe in you.”
Since the establishment of the Naval War College in 2017, 90 military officers from the Nigerian Army, Air force and Navy have been trained.
The 22 Course 5 graduands comprise 18 Nigerian Navy officers, 2 from the Nigerian Army and 2 are Nigerian Air Force personnel.
The climax of the ceremony was the presentation of certificates and merit awards to four distinguished graduands.
PIAK
