Following the apprehension that has gripped the country over unrelenting activities of murderous bandits and kidnappers, the Deputy Commandant of the National Defence College, Major General EV Onumajuru has said there is no need to review the National Security Strategy which was activated in 2019, rather, all stakeholders including MDAs, the Political authorities, CSOs and Security agencies who jointly fashioned the document must pull together to ensure its implementation for success.
The Deputy Commandant who was speaking on activities lined up to mark the 30th Anniversary of the NDC as well as the graduation ceremony of Course 30 of the College, had been asked if going by the security situation in the country where bandits were terrorizing innocent citizens and getting away scot-free, there was need to review the current strategic document?
He said, “I think the national security strategy as it is, is not due for review because it’s just been reviewed in 2019. Incidentally I was one of the teams that reviewed the document, it’s all encompassing and it is current.
“Of course, don’t forget that the document is solely owned by Nigerians. It is not owned by the military. It is not owned by the presidency. It is owned by every single one of us and the procedure for writing or reviewing this document involves all key stakeholders of the country because they were several meetings. You had people from the MDAs, you had traditional rulers, you have Faith-based organization, everybody was represented for the country’s good.
“For the current document, the last exercise held at Transcorp Hilton whereby all key stakeholders were invited, so that people can take ownership of the document. So it’s not something that we should assume that it is owned by the military or by the MDAs, no, it’s a document owned by Nigerians and the input of all Nigerians was brought to bear through this service into that document, so all of us owns it and it is also the works of all of us to make sure that it works to implement it.
“Of course, the challenges (of insecurity) are there, but that doesn’t mean that it cannot be surmounted. It can be done as a country. But that means every hands must be on deck to make it work”.
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On the journey of NDC, Major General Onumajuru who represented the Commandant, Rear Admiral MM Bashir at the briefing said, “Cumulatively, We (NDC) have graduated 2, 549 participants since its establishment. Out of this number 216 are from strategic ministries, departments and agencies; 254 graduands/generals are international participants from Africa, Europe, Asia etc, and 92 are from the Nigerian Police force over the 30 years.
Elaborating on its Defence and Diplomatic roles, the Deputy Commandant said, “On defence policy, diplomatic policy, even the national security strategy which also the high level area, the college based on the expertise they have, in terms of human resources, have actually raised teams that cracked this documents. In terms of defence diplomacy, I gave you the statistics of 254 foreign participants that this college have graduated. Among them, so many have been service chiefs in their Armed Forces both in Nigeria and other countries.
“This year we will be honouring two of them who are current service chiefs from Burkina Faso and from Uganda. So, when you graduate participants who rise to the position of service chiefs in their respective countries, of course you have a link to those countries because we monitor their progress and they remain part of us. It enables you to get certain things done easily.
“The college is also a Centre of excellence in the conduct of peace support operation at the strategic level. In this regard, we have key partners in AU and ECOWAS in advancing Peace support operations, particularly as regard the theoretical components that advance this Peace missions at the strategic level.
Continuing he said, “The National Defence College, Nigeria would be graduating Course 30 participants on the 5th of August 2022, and also this year marks the 30th year anniversary of the establishment of this college, having been established in 1992. The mandate of the college as we all know is to train selected senior military officers, their counterparts from strategic ministries, departments and agencies and also the Police to be able to operate at the strategic level both within the country and also outside the country
“In So doing, we insist that our participants understand how to use the entire government elements of national power to be able to achieve strategic objectives”.
“We are also proud of our Corporate Social Responsibilities, in the sense that our host communities, in Ushafa and Jikwoyi in Abuja, we always extend hands of fellowships to them in terms of provision of infrastructures, medical outreach, schools and even scholarships at the primary and secondary level in our own institutions to members and host communities, so the college is not left out on this area.”
