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Unveiling the New Chief of Army Staff

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 The new Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Attahiru is a graduate of the Nigerian Defence Academy Kaduna, Armed Forces Command and Staff College, and Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Jaji. He commenced cadets training in January 1984 and was commissioned in the rank of Second Lieutenant in December 1986 as an Infantry Officer.

Time Nigeria

The new Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Attahiru is a graduate of the Nigerian Defence Academy Kaduna, Armed Forces Command and Staff College, and Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Jaji. He commenced cadets training in January 1984 and was commissioned in the rank of Second Lieutenant in December 1986 as an Infantry Officer.

Born on 10 August 1966 in Doka, Kaduna North Local Government Area, Kaduna State, General Attahiru has held several appointments on the staff, instructional and in command in the course of his military career. 

He had a tour of duty with the United Nations in Sierra Leone as a Military Observer, where he facilitated United Kingdom military engagement, Operation BARASS in September 2000. 

The new Chief of Army Staff has served meritoriously within and outside Nigeria. General Attahiru was an Operations Officer and later Company Commander in NIBATT 19 ECOMOG Operations in Liberia. He had the unique privilege of having commanded with distinction all through the chain of command in the Nigerian Army, prominent among these appointments are; Commanding Officer 146 Battalion Nigerian Army (Operation HARMONY IV) in the Bakassi Peninsula, Commander 13 Brigade Nigerian Army (Operation PULO SHIELD), General Officer Commanding 82 Division Nigerian Army.

General Attahiru was one time Theatre Commander Operation LAFIA DOLE (the Counter Terrorism and Counter Insurgency Outfit in North Eastern Nigeria).  It is on record that he brought relative stability to the region with the surrender of several Boko Haram combatants. 

He  was unit Adjutant, 7 Battalion Nigerian Army, Sarti,  Chief of Staff, 1 Brigade Nigerian Army, Sokoto, General Staff Officer Grade 1 Training/Operations and as well as Staff Duties/Plans at the Headquarters 1, 2 and 81 Divisions of the Nigerian Army.

 General Attahiru was Deputy Director Military Secretary 2 at the AHQ MS (A) and one-time Director Army Public Relations and Spokesperson of the Nigerian Army.  He was later Director Staff Duties and Deputy Chief of Policy and Plans at the Army Headquarters.

 He was equally privileged to serve as Chief of Defence Transformation and Innovation and Chief of Defence Logistics at the apex organ of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, Defence Headquarters Abuja.  In that position he worked with the US Defence Logistics Agency on the Vertically Integrated Logistics Approach (VILA) Programme towards enhancing the operational readiness in the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

On the Instructional, the new Chief of Army Staff was privileged to be an Instructor at the Depot Nigerian Army, Nigerian Defence Academy and the Nigerian Army School of Infantry.  He was later a Directing Staff and Chief Instructor at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji.

General Attahiru has been exposed to leadership and professional development programmes at globally renowned institutions.  He was at the National Defence College Kenya for the National Defence Management and Security Studies Course and at the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army Special Forces Academy Shijiazhuang-Hubei Province, China for the Basic and Advanced Special/Operations Commando Forces Courses.

  He also had leadership and security policy courses at the prestigious Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University USA, Graduate School of Media and Communication, Agha Khan University Kenya, Bournemouth University Disaster Management Center and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

General Attahiru has several honours and awards to his credit.  He is a highly decorated officer with UNAMSIL Medal, ECOMOG Medal, Forces Service Star, Meritorious Service Star, Distinguish Service Star, Grand Service Star, Corps Medal of Honour, Command Medal, Field Command Medal, and Field Command Medal of Honour.

  He holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Management and Policy Studies from the Nigerian Defence Academy, Masters of Science in Human Resources Management and Development from Salford University in the United Kingdom, and Graduate Diploma in International Studies from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. 

   

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Time Nigeria is a modern and general interest Magazine with its Headquarters in Abuja. The Magazine has a remarkable difference in editorial philosophy and goals, it adheres strictly to the ethics of Journalism by using the finest ethos of the profession to promote peace among citizens; identifying and harnessing the nation’s vast resources; celebrating achievements of government agencies, individuals, groups and corporate organizations and above all, repositioning Nigeria for the needed growth and development. Time Nigeria gives emphasis to places and issues that have not been given adequate attention by others. The Magazine is national in outlook and is currently being read and patronized both in print and on our vibrant and active online platform (www.timenigeria.com).
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This is not a story about a reluctant investor. It is a story about capital that wants to move, cannot find enough places willing and able to receive it in a form it can underwrite, and quietly waits instead. Multiply that fund by the hundreds of pension schemes, sovereign wealth vehicles, commercial banks and infrastructure funds now carrying dedicated allocations for emerging-market infrastructure, and a pattern emerges that rarely makes it into a headline: the world is not short of capital for infrastructure. It has capital in historic abundance, sitting adjacent to a historic infrastructure gap, unable to cross the distance between the two. The Comfortable Explanation  The explanation on offer at every major infrastructure summit is a familiar one. Global infrastructure investment needs run into the tens of trillions of dollars over the coming decade; committed capital falls well short; therefore, the problem is one of insufficient funding, and the solution is more of it: more pledges, more blended-finance facilities, more climate funds, more multilateral capital increases. It is a comfortable explanation because it assigns responsibility clearly to governments who under-fund, institutions who under-commit, and it offers a clean remedy: raise more. 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Where the Conversion Breaks  The break does not happen at the ends of the process. It happens in the middle, in the unglamorous sequence of work that turns a plausible concept into an instrument a fiduciary can sign. A promising transmission project needs a feasibility study rigorous enough to survive institutional scrutiny rather than optimistic enough to attract early interest. It needs offtake arrangements that hold up under real counterparty and currency risk, not the counterparty risk assumed in a base case. It needs environmental and social documentation calibrated to the standards of the institutions being asked to fund it, not the standards of the jurisdiction hosting it. It needs a legal and commercial structure that allocates risk in ways a commercial lender, not only a development financier, will accept. It needs a sponsor capable of executing what has been proposed, not merely capable of proposing it. 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