By Sumaila Ogbaje

Addressing the volatile, uncertain and ambiguous nature of security challenges globally, requires whole-of-society approach.

The declaration was made in Abuja on Tuesday by the Commandant, National Defence College (NDC), Rear Adm. Murtala Bashir.

He was addressing the opening of a Strategic Analysis Course organised by the NDC for participants of Course 31 and others from defence and services headquarters and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

He recalled that there were crises, insurgencies, terrorism and conflicts globally such as between Russia and Ukraine and in Sudan and the Middle East.

“The world is becoming more volatile, uncertain and it is becoming increasingly difficult to predict the outcomes of the crises.

“The world is becoming more complex and it is difficult to understand the nature of some of these conflicts. Non-state actors are now challenging the authorities of sovereign nations.

“The battle line is becoming undefined. Belligerents are becoming undefined and non-governmental organisations are fuelling some of these crises.

“We have to examine how we can further build our capacity to understand these issues; to critically analyse them so that we can comprehensively address them and also predict future developments,’’ he said.

The commandant explained that the objective of the course was to enable participants to identify, define, and analyse issues to be able to predict future developments and proffer desired solutions.

Bashir said the NDC believed in the whole-of-society approach to addressing national security and developmental challenges hence the need to build capacity of participants.

“We have to invite participants from services headquarters, ministries, departments and agencies so that we can have a comprehensive approach to addressing our challenges.

“The military cannot address challenges alone. It has to adopt the whole-of-nation approach, for instance to tackle insurgency and terrorism,’’ he said.

In his remarks, the Director, ICT, at the NDC, Air Commodore Osichinaka Ubadike, said the course was designed to equip participants with skills needed in knowledge-based analysis and decision-making.

Ubadike said the course was also designed to raise a new corps of practical analysts in public and private sectors with knowledge on defining and analysing internal and external environments.

According to him, some of the objectives of the course are to examine contemporary global and national strategic environments in which Nigeria operates.

“It is designed to broaden the understanding and imperative of strategy; broaden understanding of various analytical tools, and enhance understanding of future perspective process.

“It is also designed to enhance understanding of net assessments and strategic estimates and enhance understanding of strategic analysis in general.

“Thirty-five of the 140 participants expected for this course are from NDC Course 31; 25 participants are from defence and services headquarters, while the others are from the Ministry of Defence and from MDAs.

“It is hoped that at the end, we will have strategic analysts that will challenge the course of security and development in Nigeria and in different other countries,’’ Obadike said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Alli Hakeem