The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai on Tuesday attributed some of the operational setbacks in the war against terrorism and other security threats to lack of sufficient willingness and sufficient commitment by a few officers and soldiers to perform assigned tasks in line with national and military directives to troops at the front lines.
He said “This is the reason why I have always ensured that the promotion of Nigerian Army personnel is based on professional considerations only” adding, ” But we know that professional capacity is not a sufficient condition to succeed in a task; willingness to perform the task is equally necessary.”
Declaring open the Army Headquarters Transformational Leadership Workshop for Army personnel in Abuja, Buratai said “It is unfortunate, but the truth is that almost every setback the Nigerian Army has had in our operations in recent times can be traced to insufficient willingness to perform assigned tasks: or simply insufficient commitment to a common national/military course by those at the front lines.
“Many of those on whom the responsibility for physical actions against the adversary squarely falls, are yet to fully take ownership of our common national or Service cause.
“I, therefore, believe that the promotion of Nigerian Army personnel
transformational leadership workshops will again remind and clarify to participants what our President and Commander in Chief meant by: “This generation and indeed, future generations of Nigerians have no other country but Nigeria, we must remain here and salvage it together.”
“The president’s exhortation, though about 35 years old, is still relevant today given as we see in some cases that apathy has even increased amongst the younger generations”.
“Some persons may wonder what makes this leadership workshop different from other leadership trainings or programmes that the NA has conducted in the past.
“We all know that leadership is core to military professionalism; hence all military professional courses include aspects of military leadership skills acquisition.
“Military leadership skills equip personnel with the capacity to control and care for members of their group from the lowest tactical to the highest operational level (Sect-DHQ).
“The NA even conducts special military leadership programmes when necessary to complement what is provided in the routine courses.
“A recent example is the junior leadership seminar conducted by TRADOC ( Training and Doctrine Command) in April 2019.
“All such programmes, however, are mainly designed to build capacities that enhance the intellectual and physical components of a fighting force: the ‘How’ we fight and the ‘what’ we fight with.
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“But you will all agree with me that a professional NA also needs to build up and sustain its moral component: the ‘why’ we fight.
“This is because one general effect of modernization, globalization and ICT in the last few decades have seen a decline in nationalistic enthusiasm.
“Transformational leadership programmes are solely designed to imbue in leaders, the consciousness and respect for the unique value of their nation and institutions through which they render service to their nation: the NA in our own case).
“The AHQ DATI Transformational Leadership Workshop is clearly and explicitly designed to teach and preach transformational leadership values to the next generation of NA leaders (officers and soldiers).
“It would also establish a platform for subsequent mentoring of participants after the workshop, hence the theme has been aptly chosen as “lead, follow or get out of the way”.
“It is worthy to note that the NA has had good success over the years in the grooming of military leaders.
“This is evident in the many successes that the NA has achieved in our operations and the high performance of our personnel (both officers/soldiers) in international/multinational operations or other military duties.
Welcoming participants made up of middle level officers and soldiers, the Chief of Transformation and Innovation, Major General Felix Agugo said, the workshop is in line with the COAS efforts to have ‘a professionally responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of our constitutional roles”, and is designed to foster a very critical, though intangible attribute of every Service personnel (that is): the ‘will’ to perform assigned tasks.
“The willingness of any Service personnel to perform assigned tasks is easily observable in his attitude, zeal and sense of duty. It essentially derives from the level of value he has for his nation, his group (unit/formation) and others who directly or indirectly benefit from his service.
This workshop will expose participants to a number of things in Nigeria that they can take pride in, thus clarifying the imperatives of patriotic citizenship and national loyalty even in the face of globalization and emerging technologies (fourth industrial revolution).
“It will interrogate the understanding of service, sacrifice and honour among the participants and provide them with worthy examples to emulate.
“Furthermore, it will work out ways to institutionalize mentorship as a framework for raising leaders as well as the environment/tools necessary for mentorship in the NA. The workshop will aim to highlight the values of communal dependency, communal surveillance and communal enforcement, as against the dangers of individualism and sycophancy (eye-service) among military professionals.
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