Nigerian Colonel Emerges Best Graduand At U.S War College, Breaks 38 Years Record

A Nigerian Army officer, Charles Nengite, a colonel, at the weekend, beat 380 other postgraduate students to the top position at the U.S. War College (USAWC), Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

The information was obtained from the college website, posted on Monday.

Mr. Nengite’s performance was the best by any foreigner in 38 years in the college, the information added.

In one of several letters conveying his choice for the various awards, the Commandant of the college, Maj.-Gen. William Rapp, described Mr. Nengite’s performance as “arguably one of the best in the international fellows programmes at the USAWC”.

Mr. Rapp also said at the graduation ceremony of the college that Nigeria should be proud of Mr. Nengite and his compatriot in the Masters of Strategic Studies class, Col. Timothy Shipi.

He said “Shipi performed brilliantly”.

The breakdown obtained from the school’s website indicated that at the graduation of the 2015 class, Col. Nengite bagged six awards for outstanding performance in different courses.

He earned the Distinguished Graduate award reserved for the top five fellows in his class of 381 and also the Commandant’s award for distinction in research.

Mr. Nengite also received the USAWC recognition award for innovation in SHARP – Sexual Harassment and Response Programme and articulated a seminal paper – “I am your friend campaign’’ – strategy under the SHARP.

SHARP is considered of significant importance to the U.S. Army.

Mr. Nengite also received the 2nd best speaker award in the speaking competition in the 2016 class made up of 302 Americans and 79 other nationals in 73 other countries.

The Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Gen. Mark Milley, who presided over the ceremony, told the audience that graduands of the college proceeded to occupy strategic leadership positions.

The USAWC was founded in 1901 to specifically cater for the strategic leadership training needs of the U.S. military.

Some of the prominent servicemen who had gone through USAWC in the past were President Muhammadu Buhari, Collin Powell, Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton and Norman Schwarzkopf.
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