Nigerian Colonel Emerges Best Graduand At US War College, Bags Six Awards

A Nigerian Army officer, Col. Charles Nengite, has emerged the best graduating student at the United States of America War College (USAWC) in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Nengite beat 380 other post-graduate students to the top position according to the information posted on Monday on the college website.

Nengite was said to have displayed the best performance by any foreigner in the 38-year history of 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 Nengite’s performance as “arguably one of the best in the international fellows programmes at the USAWC.”

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

At the graduation of the 2015 class, Col. Nengite won 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. He was also also given 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. Nengite also went on to add to his belt, 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.