The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, has charged senior Nigerian Army officers to resist intellectual complacency and continually expand their professional knowledge to effectively confront the country’s evolving security challenges.
Shaibu gave the charge on Friday, September 11, 2026, at the graduation ceremony of the Leadership and Strategic Studies Course (LSSC) 4/2025, held at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), Abuja.
The COAS, who was the Special Guest of Honour and Chairman, Board of Trustees of NARC, congratulated the graduands on completing 11 months of intensive intellectual and professional development.
He urged them to see their graduation not merely as an additional qualification, but as a call to greater responsibility, purposeful leadership and improved professional performance.
According to him, the changing nature of contemporary security threats, including terrorism, insurgency, banditry, cyber threats, information warfare and transnational organised crime, requires officers capable of thinking beyond immediate tactical challenges and developing innovative responses that combine kinetic and non-kinetic approaches.
Shaibu challenged the graduands to question assumptions, think critically and continually improve their professional knowledge, stressing that the Nigerian Army needs intellectually grounded and strategically minded officers to provide effective leadership and sound decision-making.
He noted that the expansion of the Army’s force structure from eight to 12 divisions, as well as the establishment of additional formations and units, had increased the demand for officers with the intellectual capacity to provide strategic direction, effective staff work and sound leadership.
The COAS charged the officers to become agents of positive institutional change by translating the knowledge acquired during the course into measurable improvements in planning, decision-making and operational effectiveness.
He said the development of strategic leadership capacity was consistent with his command philosophy of transforming the Nigerian Army into a professional, adaptable, combat-ready and resilient force.
Shaibu also expressed appreciation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, for his strategic guidance and continued support for professional military education and human-capital development.
Earlier, the Director General of NARC, Major General James Gwaza Khalifa Myam, said the LSSC was one of the Centre’s flagship programmes, conducted in partnership with the Postgraduate School of the Nigerian Defence Academy.
He explained that the programme was designed to provide higher-level professional and academic education for senior Direct Regular Commission officers, with a curriculum focused on leadership, strategy, national security and national development.
Myam said the course was aimed at equipping participants with the intellectual tools required to navigate contemporary security and geopolitical challenges.
He disclosed that successful participants were awarded Master’s Degrees in Leadership and Strategic Studies by the Nigerian Defence Academy, alongside Fellowships in Leadership and Strategic Studies from NARC.
The DG urged the graduands to justify the investment in their development by applying their knowledge to produce tangible, knowledge-driven outcomes in their respective formations and units.
The ceremony marked the graduation of the fourth cohort of the LSSC and further underscored the Nigerian Army’s emphasis on professional military education, strategic leadership and institutional capacity development.
