The Commandant, Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, Air Vice Marshal Shitu Alao has said the Nigerian Military School (NMS) Zaria has remained the leading military institution in training junior officers in the country.
The commandant described NMS as the first secondary school in Nigeria to perfectly infuse both military and educational training in the transformation of young boys to become future military officers and leaders in the country.
AVM Alao stated this while speaking as a special guest of honour at the school’s 2019 Commandant’s Award Night preparatory to the passing out of the boys next Saturday, held at Ogundeko hall in Zaria.
He expressed delight, as an ex-boy of the school, that the infrastructural decay notable in the institute over the years had gradually been addressed as evidenced in the expanded structures, enhanced aesthetics and continuous refurbishment of facilities.
“For this, I want to sincerely thank the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai for his renewed interest and commitment to the Nigerian Military School.
“I particularly want to appreciate him for restoring the status of the school to a full military training institution. Indeed, it is this military training that separates boys of the NMS from others,” he said.
While congratulating the passing out boys, the commandant and officers as well as soldiers, he welcomed them to venerated brotherhood of ex-boys and urged them to sustain the good image of the institution as exemplified by their predecessors.
He encouraged them to seek for more knowledge, re-discover themselves, strive for excellence and determine to be change-agents in the society.
Marshal Alao praised the NMS Commandant for his rigorousness in galvanising the stakeholder towards contributing to the development of the school.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Commandant, Nigerian Military School, Zaria, Brig. Gen Mukhtar Mohammed Bunza said the award night was an initiative institutionalised in the school to honour and reward excellence in academic and military training to deserving boys as well as other support and administrative staff of the institution.
He noted that the school has recently put in place new policy directive aimed at ensuring that the Boys are adequately exposed to new frontiers in all fields.
Bunza explained that the initiatives were relevant to the training of the Boys in support of the Chief of Army Staff vision “To have a professionally responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of its constitutional roles.”
He described NMS as a national asset and a hub for national cohesion and unity which must be well protected and preserved.
