The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, has blamed
the setback suffered by Nigerian troops in the anti-insurgency war in the
northeast on indiscipline and lack of commitment of officers and men on the
front line.
Speaking on Tuesday at “Transformational Leadership Workshop” held at the Army Resource Centre, Abuja, Buratai said their attitude had affected the success of the counter insurgency and other security operations in the country.
He said there were proven cases of lack of willingness on the part of soldiers to carry out their assignments as directed adding that professional capacity alone is not a sufficient condition to succeed in a task.
He said willingness to perform the task was of uttermost importance and warned those not willing to perform their duties to get out of the way as the army would no longer tolerate their act.
“It is unfortunate but the truth is that almost every setback the Nigeria 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 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,” he said.
The army chief said the event was organised to address the issue.
“Some persons may wonder what makes this leadership workshop different from other leadership trainings or programmes that the Nigerian Army had 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.
“The AHQ DATI Transformational Leadership Workshop is clearly and explicitly designed to teach/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.
“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 modernisation and ICT in the last few decades has 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).
“This is done without undermining the imperatives of international cooperation or general inter-dependency of humans.
“The AHQ DATI Transformational Leadership Workshop is clearly and explicitly designed to teach/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,” he said.
He noted that the Nigerian army had good successes 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. And this is the reason why I have always ensured that the promotion of NA personnel is essentially based on professional considerations only.
“But we all know that professional capacity is not a sufficient condition to succeed in a task; willingness to perform the task is equally necessary.
He urged every participant “to put the highest level of seriousness to achieve the full objectives of this workshop and ensure that the precious time and efforts of this calibre of resource persons are not wasted.”
He said leadership is core to military professionalism hence the inclusion of 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.
“The Nigerian Army even conducts special military leadership programmes when necessary to complement what is provided in the routine courses,” he added.
