Major General Farouk Yahaya was appointed as the new Chief of Army Staff on May 27th 2021, by President Muhammadu Buhari, following the demise of his predecessor, Lieutenant General Attahiru Ibrahim.
Born January 5 1966 in Sokoto state, Major General Yahaya is a member of the 37 regular course of the Nigerian Defence Academy. He started his cadet training in 1985 and was commissioned into the Nigerian Army Infantry Corps on September 22,1990, since then, he has held several appointments including Staff, Instructional and Command.
Prior to his appointment, he was the General Officer Commanding 1 Division of the Nigerian Army and the incumbent Theatre Commander of the Counter terrorism, Counter Insurgency military outfit in the North East code-named Operation Hadin Kai.
Appointments held by the new COAS are Garrison Commander Headquarters Guards Brigade, Directing Staff at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Deputy Director Army Headquarters Department of Military Secretary, Deputy Director Army Research and Development and the Chief of Staff, Headquarters Joint Task Force Operation Pulo Shield. Also, he served as the Principal General Staff Officer (PGSO) to the Honourable Minister of Defence, the Commander, Headquarters 4 Brigade and 29 Task Force Brigade (Operation Zaman Lafiya).
Furthermore, he served as Director Manpower at the Army Headquarters, Military Secretary, Army Headquarters and General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division of the Nigerian Army.
In addition, he is a proud holder of several honors and awards, some of which include Forces Service Star, Meritorious Service Star, Distinguished Service Star, Grand Service Star, Passed staff course (Dagger), National DefenceCourse (Chile), Economic Community of West Africa State Monitoring Group Medal and more.
According to his curriculum vitae posted on Facebook by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, he indicated that is hobbies are cracking jokes, traveling, reading and listening to local music. Major Gen.Yahaya speaks English, Spanish, Arabic and Hausa.
