The Nigerian Army (NA) has pledged to step up collaboration with Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) in order to enhance the capacity development of its officers.

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai, indicated the readiness of the NA to strengthen partnership with HKS when he received a delegation from the institution at the Army Headquarters, Abuja.

As was contained in a press release signed by Colonel Sagir Musa  , Acting Director Army Public Relations , the COAS on behalf of Soldiers and Officers of the NA, thanked the management of the school for the visit and lauded the institution for its strategic role in building quality/ visionary leaders.

It would be recalled that the NA under the command of Lt Gen TY Buratai has sponsored very many officers who have leadership potentials, – of becoming great leaders to the school in order to build their capacity on defence and security studies for strategic leadership responsibility.

He promised to strengthen partnership with the institution in order to have the HKS train officers here in Nigeria.

Earlier in his remark, the leader of the delegation, Maj Gen William Rapp (rtd) stated that the partnership was sacrosanct in order to develop officers with requisite leadership abilities to overcome current complex leadership challenges.

According to him, “Nigeria’s future is very significant to the world, the collaboration will enhance the capacity of the NA leadership to look forward to changes and challenges in a global scale.

In his remarks at the occasion, the Director General Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), Maj Gen Wahab (rtd), who led the HKS team on the visit posited that “the aim of the visit was to enable the management of the school familiarize with the leadership of the NA and deliberate on how best to develop the partnership between the NA and HKS. We are looking of how best we could have lecturers from the institution to come to Nigeria to train officers of the NA through the NARC.

He further disclosed plans by the Centre to have HKS kick start training here in Nigeria, with the sole objective of building the capacity of our future strategic leaders for the military and the nation.

Present during the visit were some Principal Staff Officers of the Army Headquarters as well as some management staff of HKS.