THE NATION
President Bola Tinubu has assured the Armed Forces, going by the quality and standards of their trainings, are capable of bringing all the current threats and criminalities to an end.
He spoke at the Diamond Jubilee of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in Kaduna, charging the Forces not to relent in safeguarding the territorial integrity of Nigeria against all threats.
According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, the President also commended the Forces for their dedication to duty and sacrifices for the nation.
He assured them of his administration’s commitment to their welfare as well as unflagging support in the discharge of their duties.
The NDA, which was established on February 5, 1964, has undergone various stages of transformation in its quest to fulfill its mandate of training officers for the Nigerian Armed Forces.
Before obtaining independence from Britain, Nigeria’s first set of officers were trained in Ghana and subsequently at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, England.
But by January 1964, four years after independence, the first batch of 64 army and navy cadets commenced training at the NDA.
Tinubu highlighted some of the milestones recorded during the transformation of the NDA to include the subsequent addition and training of Air Force cadets, the successful reunification of the country after the Civil War in 1967 as well as the various short-service military training programmes instituted to fill the manpower needs caused by the Civil War.
Other noteworthy achievements, he said, include the upgrade of the NDA from a non-degree awarding institution to a full-fledged degree-awarding university in 1985, thereby phasing out the Nigerian Defence Academy Certificate of Education hitherto awarded to cadets.
“The government is also pleased to note that the curriculum approved by the National Universities Commission, the regulatory body, is sufficiently robust and broad-based to enable the cadets to acquire the knowledge, skills, values, character, and discipline required for effective and efficient service in the Nigerian Armed forces in peace times and in times of crises.
“I understand that other giants’ strides recorded in the NDA include the establishment of post-graduate programs, the creation of research centres and centres of excellence to facilitate research and enable cross fertilization of ideas.
“The consistent academic calendar devoid of industrial disputes and strikes should make the NDA postgraduate school an institution of first choice not only for Nigerian students but also for students across the globe. I therefore charge the academic staff both military and nonmilitary to transform the NDA into ‘Nigeria’s Silicon Valley,’ a hub for startups where ideas are not only incubated but also actualized,” the President said.
The President commended the past and present leadership of the NDA for the quality of military and academic training, which has continued to attract clientele from other African nations.
He said with the quality of training at the Academy, the military is capable of bringing to an end all acts of banditry, insurgency, and criminality that have ravaged the country.
