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NIPSS Braces up for New Millennium
By Major General Joseph Nanven Garba(rtd) CFR, Director General NIPSS at the Graduation Ceremony of the Senoir
Executive Course 21 - Saturday, November 6, 1999
Today must be the most remarkable occasion in the history of NIPPS: The President of our country who himself, two decades ago, initiated the idea
and presided over the founding of the National Institute has come, for the second time, to preside over our Graduation Ceremony.
Mr. President, as we express our loyalty and congratulate you on your
election as President, we also thank you especially for coming, as it were, to launch NIPSS into the new democratic millennium. The past five months have been most eventful for our nation. The entire thrust
of your Administration's policies, the clarity of your priorities, the fresh and bright image which you are building for the country and the dynamism of your style are a clarion call to us here at Kuru to also rise and
shine. I assure you that we are poised to do just that.
I welcome the Chief of Defence Staff, all our distinguished Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police and thank them all for honouring our
invitation to this ceremony.
His Excellency, Joshua Dariye, the Governor of Plateau State has assumed the mantle as our landlord. We rejoice with him over his election to the highest office in Plateau
State. The founding fathers of NIPPS chose Kuru as its location for what they called its qualities as a venue for "cool and sober reflection." Twenty-one years ago. Kuru continues to be ever
serene. We look forward to continuing the excellent and warm relations which the National Institute has always enjoyed with the Government and people of Plateau State.
In recent months we have been provided
with repeated and abundant proof of Governor Dariye's superb leadership qualities. In no time at all he has addressed himself to mobilising the untapped resources of Plateau State and even those that had
been tapped away! He is doing an admirable job in winning the hearts and minds of the diverse people of Plateau State and making them an entity with a united purpose. I feel certain that by his sheer energy,
his unyielding belief in progress and by the grace of God, he will attain the goals which we all cherish. The National Institute stands ever ready to put its special skills especially in research at
the disposal of Plateau State and other States of the Federation.
I welcome all our distinguished guests from far and near. Honourable Ministers, members of the Diplomatic Corps, and Chief Executives of
Public and Private Sector organisations.
I wish in particular to thank my predecessor, Professor Nur Alkali, and all the members of staff of the National Institute who made my assumption of duty as smooth as
possible under the circumstance. Our prayer is that we shall all, to the benefit of Institute and Country, learn the required lessons from the lively events of the past couple of months.
I extend a warm
welcome to the President of the Alumni Association of the National Institute, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi and all the members of his Executive Council here present. As we add today a few dozen more to the ranks
of the holders of the "mni" title, we look forward to a more resourceful role for them in support of the aspirations of NIPSS. Mr. President, the graduands of Senior Executive Course No 21, who are
seated before you today are (42) in number - fourty (40) men and (2) women. They have spent the past ten months delving into a wide variety of policy areas-touching on the economy, the defence sector, the complexities
of Nigeria's political life, including our foreign relations, and the impact of all of these on our social interactions and the well-being of ordinary Nigerians.
The Participants of Senior Executive Course 21
have successfully completed their programme of study for 1999. This included lectures, seminars, syndicate discussions, local and foreign tours and the Annual Concluding Seminars, which ended only a few days ago.
This year, we invited a select range of lecturers from the executive branch, including honourable ministers, defence experts and heads of various parastatals. Other lecturers came from the universities,
the foreign diplomatic corps and the organised private sector. In the tradition of the National Institute, lively discussions always followed these lectures. There was a high turnout of lecturers and the
participants demonstrated an impressive level of commitment and interest in the discussions.
The theme of the local tours this year was "The impact of Poverty Alleviating Agencies on rural development".
Participants applied this theme on their visit to eight States of the Federation, including: Gombe, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Enugu, Oyo, Ondo and Akwa-Ibom.
Their finds uniformly confirmed the concern of
government over the level of poverty in our land and revealed many areas in which policy must intensify efforts aimed at alleviating poverty with home-grown measures and the cooperation of our foreign
collaborators. Their findings are already embodied in a special brief to government.
This year the foreign tour took participants to Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Gambia. Thanks to
continuing efforts by government to put our relations with foreign countries on a more even keel, the reception enjoyed by the participants in the countries they visited has improved considerably. We thank our
missions in those countries for the incalculable assistance they rendered to those who went on the foreign tours. We are now in a position to utilise the tour report towards enhancing our ongoing assessment of our
relations with countries in far-flung regions of the world.
The concluding Seminars reviewed the subject "Reviving the socio-economic sector and infrastructure in Nigeria" with sub-themes which
included: Agriculture, Health, Education and Energy. We thank all the lecturers and discussants who honoured our invitation to these seminars. The conclusions and recommendations from these seminars will now
form the basis of further indepth analysis in the relevant areas by the Research Department.
The NIPSS Crisis Game is a major aspect of the work of every Senior Executive Course. Each game singles out a
priority area of policy or a serious national issue which is liable to develop into an emergency. NIPSS prides itself on a well-nigh prophetic record in its annals of crisis simulation. The games are drawn
up and organised by the Research Department and are played very realistically together with staff and participants.
Early this year, long before the end of the transition we chose as the subject of the
approaching games: "The involvement of key political forces in ethnic and religious conflict." Not only was the choice vindicated by ensuing developments across the country, the game itself coincided with
heightened interest in the subject on account of dramatic developments between July and August. The results were very illuminating and are the subject of a reasoned briefs to government.
Each participant
wrote a lengthy individual essay on a subject largely on one's own choice supervised by a Directing Staff. These well-researched essay formed a major part of the requirements in the assessment for the title of
"mni"
The last academic exercise of the Senior Executive Course programme is usually the Distinguished Annual Lecture organised by the Research Department. This year the subject was: "Facing
the Future of Nigeria: Mastering the Probable and Managing the Unpredicted" Our most distinguished lecturer was none other than Professor Adebayo Adedeji.
Mr. President,
As we survey our nation in the past
five months, it has become clearly evident for all discerning Nigerians that a new era is truly in place. And as we witness the reactions to your recent visits to the United Nations and United States, no one can
doubt that the rest of the world has accepted that fact.
We will not lag behind at the National Institute. Those who founded our prestigious establishment have bequeathed to us a legacy and an ideal below
which we may not and dare not fall. Our motto is "Towards a better society" and we are committed to making it resonate through our land by hard work and real achievements.
We are beginning
immediately. Our review of the course content of the Senior Executive Course has started. Beginning from the year 2000, the courses will be made more responsive to the practical needs of policy formulation
and execution. We believe that every participant, being a high-level student, is a research by the same token. Therefore, we shall devote greater energy to delving deep into the social, political, economic,
scientific and technological problems besetting Nigeria.
We shall ensure that those who pursue excellence must also be of excellent material. In the choice of Participants to the successive Senior Executive
Course, we shall do our utmost to help government choose the best candidates whether from Federal Institutions or from States, whether from the public or private sector. And we are committed never again to
downplay the requirement of good character in arriving at our choices.
In doing this we ask government to "give us the tools and we will finish the job." The urgent needs of the National Institute, as
we forge into the new era, have already been tabled before government. In this respect, let me acknowledge here and now, the immense interest which the President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces has
already shown in the rehabilitation of NIPSS. The Vice-President, under whose purview we are formally placed, has also consistently supported our wish to excel.
Mr. President, we are now constantly reminded
that we should confidently expect your ardent support because the National Institute is after all your baby. And I heartily agree!.
But allow me to make a special case for the Research activities of the
National Institute. In today's world, it has become a common place that research is the major key to development in all its aspect. It is true that there is, today, a proliferation of Institutes seeking the
support of government. But the National Institute is unique among all the establishments in our land: it is the only one charged with the mandate to research in every aspect of policy without
exception. We can only do this if we promote impetuous research in collaboration with all agencies wherever excellence is to be found. We therefore urge government to help us build up our research
capabilities including the instruments for storing data, our library facilities, our ability to publish and our collaboration with other centres of excellence. In order to fulfil our obligations in these areas
there is urgent need for a radical review of the allocations we receive.
As far as Kuru campus is concerned, it was designated a temporary site until only four fears ago. This sudden change in status has
produced far-reaching implications for our capital budget. With so much obsolescence in the infrastructures and the need to implement a master plan worthy of the high goals of NIPSS, it has fallen to our lot to
embark on crucial development for which we will need urgent and substantial assistance from government.
As your Foreign Minister, I was immeasurably sustained by the unfailing confidence you reposed in me, your
wisdom and insight in our affairs and your personal warmth during those exciting years. I thank you most ardently for appointing me once again, this time to the helms of such an eminent establishment. Under
your leadership and guidance the National Institute will surely fulfil lofty ideals for which you set it up.
Mr. President, never before in our history as a nation have we had greater reason to deplore our misuse
of our bountiful resources in a reckless era; but never before have we had more reason to hope for a greater tomorrow. Ours is to maintain the crucible through which our top leaders will emerge. We are fully
committed to that task.
And so I say to the graduating Participants of Senior Executive Course 21: You have the priviledge to find yourselves in the frontline of the millennium enterprise for our nation.
While you have been here, you have, hopefully, learned the virtues of the pursuit of excellence in leadership and the absolute necessity of subjecting all other things, tribe, tongue and creed- to the patriotic service
of your country. Through your local tours you have been exposed to the mores and mannerisms of other groups. We trust you have learned that in the most essential things we are all one.
But you have
also had the opportunity for comparative studies and the insight which comes from seeing other foreign culture and methods. You have been witness to the fact that Nigerians have every reason to hold their heads
high among the nations of the world. You have observed our points of glory and our points of weakness. You are in a position, as you go to lead others, to take the rough with the smooth with a confident and
equable mind. With full confidence I say: "See you in the next millennium!"
Mr. President, our Special Guest of Honour, we thank you for the great honour you have done us this day, by your presence
among us. To our honoured guests, your Excellencies, your eminencies, spiritual and temporal, members of the Diplomatic corps and the Alumni Association, and all the friends of the National Institute, I say a big
THANK YOU.
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