Nigerian Navy: Strengthening Personnel’s Proficiency through Education

Nigerian Navy: Strengthening Personnel’s Proficiency through Education

By Kabir Abdulsalam

Education is a key component of Military operational success. Over the years, the Nigerian Navy has ceaselessly striven to expand and diversify the quest for knowledge and intervention for societal improvement particularly on innovation.

Similarly, the Nigerian Navy has been fortifying its military capacity and strategies for modern warfare to broaden personnel’s knowledge base through education.

The Admiralty University of Nigeria, ADUN, Delta State was established for this quest as a template and platform that will be geared towards enabling the navy to contribute its quota to the pool of knowledge during the ex-Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ekwe Ibok-Ete Ibas in 2018.

ADUN aimed to reduce the high rate of foreign training and acquiring knowledge, not only for its personnel but also those of its sister services owing to the pressure of the foreign exchange rates.

The formative stage of the institution traced to mid-2014, started as Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) through the joint efforts of Nigerian Navy Holdings (a subsidiary organization of the Nigerian Navy) and Hellenic Education Nigeria — a private consultancy, which specializes in developing universities and colleges of higher education to accommodates civilians.

The University received a full operational license from the National University Commission (NUC) in 2021 after a successful verification exercise. In December 2021, ADUN management presented twelve programs to the Commission for accreditation and all the twelve programs were accredited.

Recently, under the leadership of Chief Of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo, ADUN has taken to its exceptional trend and recorded landslides feast through the strategic partnership with some Educational Institutions, especially at the tertiary level across Nigeria intending to take the education of its Officers and Ratings to the next level as well as position the service as a global example among world navies.

The Navy Boss spoke at the maiden convocation ceremony of the Institution, he noted that for Nigeria and Africa to develop, more attention should be given to education especially the tertiary institutions in the country.

According to him, the purpose of setting ADUN by the Nigerian Navy was to produce graduates who irrespective of their courses of studies would think and function creatively to achieve economic reliance.

Gambo, at the event also promised to offer automatic employment to 24 graduating students who made first class under the Presidential Amnesty Programme at the university.

He said that 80 percent of the maiden graduates were delegates of the Federal Government’s amnesty program, who would be considered for immediate employment in addition to other graduands of the university.

According to him: “All these are subject to subsisting terms and conditions of the naval service.”

Similarly, The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Paul Omojo Omaji, said that the five years old university trained its graduates to solve problems and be luminary leaders that would promote the growth of the society.

Mr. Tony Elumelu, the keynote speaker, spoke on leadership and maintained that passion and hard work are key to success in businesses.