By Jonathan Lois
The nominee for Chief of Defence Staff, Maj Gen Christopher Musa, on Monday said that if confirmed for the post, his leadership would be hinged on three pillars, which are people-centricity, prioritizing troops’ welfare and deepening joint and interagency collaboration.
He said this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee to screen the Service Chiefs nominated by President Bola Tinubu.
He said the realization of the critical responsibility of the CDS elicits a clear leadership concept which will serve as the roadmap supporting the implementation of relevant guiding principles by the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN).
Musa said the significance of this roadmap is to foster a highly disciplined, cohesive and inspired AFN ready to achieve its constitutional roles, facilitate national security and enhance sustainable socio-economic development in the country.
“In this regard, the broad outline of my leadership concept shall be ‘To Nurture a Professional Armed Forces of Nigeria that is People Centric, Capable of Meeting its Constitutional Responsibilities in a Joint and Collaborative Environment’.
“Accordingly, my leadership concept will be hinged on three pillars which include being people-centricity, prioritizing troops’ welfare while deepening jointness and interagency collaboration,” he said.
He equally recognized the significance of leading the thousands of devoted and distinguished service men and women to provide a secure and peaceful environment for the Nigerian people to freely engage in their legitimate enterprise in line with the constitutional mandate of the AFN.
“In this regard, the AFN under my leadership will be people-centric by prioritizing and safeguarding our people and their legitimate way of life as prescribed by the Nigerian Constitution.
“Accordingly, the AFN will apply the lens of people-centricity to key components of activities to truly put the Nigerian people at the centre of its actions geared towards promoting and safeguarding a secure environment for all.
“To achieve this, the AFN will defend our territorial integrity and democracy as well as safeguard internal security and unity to achieve the stability required to guarantee sustainable national development,” he said.
On prioritizing troops welfare, he said: “Troops’ welfare and sound administration will provide the required atmosphere for the AFN to deliver on its constitutional responsibilities. Thus, the AFN will continue to seek ways and means to improve the welfare of its personnel under my watch.
“In this regard, service men and women of the AFN should be reassured of my commitment to their welfare, provision of relevant operational equipment as well as infrastructural development within available resources to enable them to succeed in assigned constitutional roles.
“The goal will be to promote targeted and specific capacity building, sound administration and efficient resource management amongst others to enhance both individual and collective welfare of AFN personnel.
“I shall also promote international military cooperation/ collaboration to further expose and provide capacity building to AEN personnel in joint and combined operations outside the shores of Nigeria.
“This measure is required to consolidate on AFN welfare priorities in order to effectively deploy, fight and win our nation’s wars by providing ready, prompt and sustained land, sea and air dominance by the AFN across traditional as well as asymmetric conflict settings as part of a joint force.”
On deepening collaboration in the AFN, he explained that “joint operation which is designed to exploit unity of efforts to seize, retain and maintain the initiative in order to achieve a clearly defined military objective is crucial to the realization of the AFN constitutional duties.
“I shall, therefore, deepen jointness and prioritize decision-making through a shared process of active contribution and consultation across a wide spectrum of our security architecture.
“This is geared towards ensuring that the AFN is capable of promptly identifying and addressing emerging operational challenges with appropriate methods and capabilities in a timely and efficient manner.
“In this regard, I shall promote trust, initiative, judgment and creativity among the various services and maintain a channel for proactive engagement in all our interactions. With regard to other security forces, I shall build bridges by revitalizing communication channels while deepening synergy in the planning and execution of operations within a well-coordinated, joint and multi-agency environment.”
He said the contemporary of security challenges which the AFN and other Security services are currently confronting calls for a more concise approach towards mitigating the issues.
“In view of this, I am committed to ensuring a conducive and secure environment for the protection of lives and properties for socio-economic activities to thrive. To ensure this, the AFN under my leadership is poised to fulfill its constitutional roles in order to defend Nigeria’s sovereignty against internal and external aggressors,” he said.
Also the nominee for the Chief of Army Staff, Maj Gen Taoreed Lagbaja, said he would run a proactive, adaptive and inclusive leadership if confirmed.
“I consider my nomination as a call to higher responsibilities and I am determined not to betray the trust and confidence reposed in me. It is an open secret that our country has faced a challenging security environment in the past two decades.
“It has impacted adversely on our socio economic and political lives. The episodic crises of the past have now become enduring thereby making governance and the rule of law more challenging for successive administrations”, he said.
