 General Martin Agui, thank you so much for your time. Would you begin by telling us a little bit about your background? Well, I joined the Nigerian military in 1970, just immediately after the Nigerian Civil War. And I had my training both in Nigeria and abroad. I did my staff college training in Cambly in UK. And on my commission, I was commissioned into the Amor Co. So I did attend the U.S. Army Amor School in Fort Knox, Kentucky. And at home, I had some training in our national defense college. And went back to the United States to do a masters in national resource strategy at the National Defense University in Washington DC. During my service, I was lucky to command from a platoon, to company, to battalion and a brigade commander. And in 2003, I was appointed as the Chief of Army Staff, that is the commander of the Nigerian Army. That position I held for three years before I was made the Chief of Defense Staff in 2006. And that was my last job in Nigeria. And outside Nigeria, I have had a tour of duty in Sierra Leone as the Deputy Force Commander in the UN mission in Sierra Leone. And I also went to the UN headquarters to be Deputy Military Advisor as the Department of Peacekeeping in New York. And my last job in the military before I retired last year December, I was the last force commander of the African mission in Sudan. And I was the first United Nations African Union hybrid force in Darfur. So you did the transition from being part of the Nigerian military into the UN. Was that a simple move? Well, it was not quite easy. I agreed that one had some training at home and abroad and talked about peacekeeping. But they were really no organized training. As such, I really give you an insight of the challenges you are going to face in the new job. Unlike what is happening today where you have senior mission leaders, courses for possible future leaders to attend. Some of us didn't have that privilege, we didn't have that opportunity. So it was only job, I'll call it only job training. You got in there, you tried to find best practices and from yours and other people's experiences. You keep moving, that was what really happened. It wasn't easy. I remember particularly my first mission experience in Sierra Leone. It was a very demanding one because that was when the UN had suffered a very heavy setback by the rebel kidnapping almost 600 peacekeepers. So it was a real setback and a real trouble time for the mission. And we got there without any preparation. It took me actually three months really to understand where I was and what I was expected to do. But after that we were able to forge ahead, got some ceasefire arrangement and got disarmament done in Sierra Leone that today Sierra Leone has gone. Since I left, they have had three elections. Do you think that on so many fronts, Africa is probably the UN's greatest challenge? Well yes, you see first and foremost there are a lot of expectations, especially in the trouble zone. One, the world itself expects the UN to do some magic. The host nation, especially those that need protection, the women, the children, the elderly, that really need protection feel that UN must provide them the protection. And yes, the UN have tried but you cannot be everywhere in a country. So once a little thing happened and UN does not respond quickly, you will find a lot of condemnation, a lot of challenges and criticism. You see another big challenge is how you bring together the military from different nations with different background and training, different culture and then you bring those military, you bring police from different way of policing from their nations into walking together in a mission and then you have civilians also from different culture. So to bring all these together under one umbrella and then outside the mission you have the country team like the humanitarians who have been walking there and development agencies that are walking in those countries and those areas. For all of you to walk together have the common agreement and common focus to achieve the goal is not very easy. It's a real big challenge and that's why I still believe that we are getting it right now. Now that we are beginning to have integrated training, especially for those who will be leaders, that is very important. Why is that important? Can you give us some examples? Well it's so important because it's one, for you before going you know the possible challenges and you know the possible areas. For example when I went to Sierra Leone in 2000 as a deputy force commander I really didn't understand the relationship between the humanitarians and the peacekeepers. I didn't understand why some NGOs would not want military protection for their convoys or for their activities. So but now I do and if future leaders also have the opportunity to know the walking system of the NGOs the do's and don'ts of the NGOs, those of the UN humanitarian organization and then the mission itself and you understand the relationship, the walking relationship between the country team, the humanitarian and the mission is very important. So that is why I feel is very very absolutely important that people get to know this before they even go forward to take the position of leadership. There has been so much of a resounding theme through this conference and all the people that we've spoken to about the importance of doing your homework, doing your research. How do you set up the best training to do that? Well one of the generic training we have is very good to prepare people but however every mission has its own peculiarity. Even if it is all the missions in Africa each one of them has its own peculiarity and that is why it's also important that just before the leaders leave for a mission that they have an opportunity to know more, to study a little bit more, research more and if possible visit the area where they are going to walk for the other workers especially the troops because the first people to learn always are the military. It's important for the young man look at a young 18, 19, 20 year old chap who have just left school now you are taking him to a foreign country where he has never had a feel what it is. It's very important that you give him a very clear picture of what is expected, what is going to find there and what is expected of him and knowing fully well also that most of the training of the military as I used to say is shoot to kill, that is what you are taught when you join the military. Now you are going for a mission, you are being told that even when people spit on your face you should accept it and you should use minimum force if I told you are going to use it. So you see the real challenges that you have to balance it up now to retrain and refocus the troops before they go out. The next other thing is the equipment, you must give them the right tool to do the job you want them to do. So a lot of it appears to be about managing expectations as opposed to not just in the residents of the home country but also within your own people, your own forces. Yes, well yes that is what makes peacekeeping a very difficult job because there are too many expectations. Even your own home country that is sending you has its own expectation why they are sending you. The host country has its own expectation, the region where you are going to operate have their own expectation and the international community that is sending you there also have their own expectations. So these are all the challenges and that is why it is very important especially from the leadership level that the leaders are prepared by whosoever is sending them, should fully prepare them to face the challenge they are going to.