Strategic Knowledge Partnership and Military Performance Management: Positioning the Nigerian Army University Biu within Nigerian Army Effectiveness

Abstract

Nigeria’s contemporary security environment is characterized by insurgency, terrorism, banditry, and other asymmetric threats that has placed increasing demands on the Nigerian Army not only in operational terms but also in leadership development, institutional learning, and performance management. While the Nigerian Army University Biu (NAUB) is a conventional, non-operational university, its potential role in supporting military effectiveness through knowledge-based engagement remains underexplored in existing literature. This conceptual paper addresses the problem of limited scholarly articulation of structured
academic-military knowledge partnerships in Nigeria by examining how NAUB can be positioned as a strategic knowledge partner to the Nigerian Army. The objectives of the study are to examine the role of conventional universities in non-operational military support, synthesize relevant theoretical perspectives, and develop a conceptual framework linking NAUB’s academic functions to military effectiveness and performance management. Adopting a qualitative conceptual research design based on integrative literature review, the study is anchored in civil-military relations theory, professional military education theory, knowledge transfer theory, innovation diffusion theory, counterinsurgency theory, and military performance management theory. The paper proposes a conceptual framework that connects NAUB’s education, research, innovation, and advisory roles to institutional outcomes such as leadership development, innovation readiness, and performance measurement capacity. The study recommends the formal institutionalization of structured academic–military knowledge partnerships that respect civil–military boundaries while strengthening learning-oriented military performance management systems. The paper contributes theoretically and policy wise by clarifying how conventional universities can support military effectiveness without operational involvement.