The Nigerian Army is to step up collaboration with Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), United States, in the area of capacity development of its officers.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Tukur Buratai, stated this when he received a delegation from the institution at the Army Headquarters, Abuja.
The COAS said the school played a strategic role in building quality and visionary leaders across the world.
The Nigerian Army under the present leadership had sponsored many officers to the school in order to build their capacity on defence and security studies for strategic leadership responsibility.
Buratai promised to strengthen partnership with the institution in order to have the school train officers in Nigeria rather than traveling to the United States.
In his remark, the leader of the delegation, Maj. General William Rapp (rtd), stated that the partnership was sacrosanct in order to develop officers with requisite leadership abilities to overcome current complex leadership challenges.
“Nigeria’s future is very significant to the world, and the collaboration will enhance the capacity of the Nigerian Army leadership to look forward to changes and challenges in a global scale,” he said.
The Director General Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), Maj. General Wahab (rtd), who led the HKS team on the visit said “the aim of the visit was to enable the management of the school familiarise with the leadership of the Nigerian Army and deliberate on how best to develop the partnership between the army and the school.
“We are looking of how best we could have lecturers from the institution to come to Nigeria to train officers of the Nigerian Army through the NARC.”
He said plans had been set to have school kick-start training in Nigeria, with the objective of building the capacity of “our future strategic leaders for the military and the nation.”
