Nigerian Defence Academy


The Nigerian Defence Academy Kaduna, is one of the first of two Military Universities in Nigeria. Nigerian Army University established in 2018 in Biu, Borno State is the other military university though it does not offer military training. The duration of training at the Nigerian Defence Academy is 5 years for Army cadets and 4 years for Navy and Air force cadets after which they proceed to Nigerian Naval College, Onne, Port-Hacourt and 301 Flying Training School, Kaduna respectively for 1-year training at their respective services.

History

The NDA was established in February 1964 as a reformation of the British run Royal Military Forces Training College, which had been renamed the Nigerian Military Training College on independence. The military institution trains the officer corps of the Nigerian Army, Navy and Air Force. The initial class was only 62 cadets, and trainers were mostly officers in the Indian Army. The NDA grew to an all Nigerian training staff only in 1978.
In 1981 itself began bilateral training of foreign militaries. In 1985 the academy commenced offering undergraduate programmes to Military Officers In Training and now also currently offers post graduate studies both for Msc and Ph.D for both military and civilian students alike. The central mission remains the training of young officer cadets in the 5 year "Regular Combatant Course" in which cadets are groomed in Military, Academic and Character development to instill discipline and leadership skills according to global best practices, culminating in the award of a bachelor's degree and presidential commissioning into the rank of second lieutenant for Army cadets or equivalent in the Navy and Air Force for respective cadets. Until 2011 this course used to be exclusively for males, the first set of female cadets commenced training in September 2011. As of 2019, its total cadet class is around 2500.
The current Commandant is Major General Sarham Jamilu.

Commandants

Below is the chronological list of NDA Commandants:
Some notable alumni: