The Nigerian Defence College (NDC) on Thursday graduated 107 top level officers, including 18 participants from 18 allied countries who went through a one year course in the college.
The international participants of the NDC Course 28 were from Bangladesh, India, Brazil, Benin republic, Burundi, Botswana, Nepal, Niger republic, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Gambia, Ghana, Cote D’ Voire, Mali and Zambia.
Pesident Muhammadu Buhari, represented by the Minister of Defence, Maj-General Bashir Magashi (rtd), congratulated the graduands.
“You are graduating at a time when the values acquired in the college are most needed. I urge you to use your acquired knowledge, skills and aptitudes on the course to improve the overall service delivery of security and defence of our dear nation.
“For allied participants. I urge you to go back home and make your nations safer and more secured, and be good ambassadors of the National Defence College,”he said.
The Commandant of NDC, Rear Admiral Markson Kadiri, who commended the participants for successfully completing the course, said what they had acquired would deepen their understanding of the social political environment and the intricacy.
Kadiri said that the knowledge acquired by the participants would help them in solving problems in their various areas of work.
He said that not all problems required kinetic solution, but collective efforts would help in addressing some of the challenges in the society.
He said that the world was in a complex situation that needed a complex solution.
“Don’t let us make a mistake. We are in a complex security environment and the solutions too are very complex. It is not as easy as we look at it, but they are not insurmountable.
“Not all problems are solved by kinetic efforts, just as we have now, you don’t use riffle to kill COVID-19, in a complex situation environment, the requirement to solve it is also multi diversionary.
“One of the approaches is for all agencies to collaborate, we have the military now and people in the paramilitary services, we have people from the civil key departments from the agencies of government.
“We also have international collaborations. We have 19 countries participating in the programme, by the time we bring all these together, we have deepened the participants understanding of the problems and all the instrument available to solve them,”he said.
One of the participants and an award winner, Navy Capt IG Ikonne, said he was glad to participate in the course.
Ikonne said that the knowledge acquired would enhance his capacity in terms of improving security of the country.
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