Martin Luther Agwai

The National Defence College Abuja also commissioned a research project aimed to promote values of leadership garnered from the lives and careers of strategic leaders. The project had Martin Luther Agwai as the first in a series of leaders to be studied. Through the efforts of the Centre for Strategic Research and Studies, in collaboration with a biography company in Nigeria, May University Press Limited, Lagos state, the research was done and the findings published in a book - Iconic Soldier and Peacemaker. A Biography of Martin Luther Agwai. The book was launched in february 2019.

General Martin Luther Agwai retired from the Nigerian Armed Forces in December 2009. The Minister of Defence, Retired Maj-Gen Abbe said "the magnificent parade accorded Agwai is an indication that the nation is happy... the country is proud to produce a fine officer and a gentleman who gave a good account of himself. I am expressing the Commander-in-Chief’s pleasure, President Umaru Yar'Adua for the service he had rendered to his country and beyond and that is what an officer should be".

He was commissioned into the Nigerian Armed Forces in 1972 and has held several positions including Chief of Training and Operations of the Nigerian Armed Forces and Director of Military Training at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna. He was the Nigerian Military Adviser at Harare, covering the whole of Southern Africa between 1993 - 1996. He was a Directing Staff and Chief Instructor at the Command and Staff College Jaji - Kaduna, Nigeria. Before becoming the Chief of Army Staff he was the Deputy Military Adviser at United Nations Headquarters, New York. He was the Chief of Defence Staff of the Nigerian Armed Forces since 1 June 2006. Before that, he held several senior positions in the Nigerian Army, including being Chief of Army Staff. He served as the commander of the combined United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. General Agwai led one of the biggest peacekeeping operations in the world with approximately 20,000 troops and 6,000 police under his command.

Martin Luther Agwai CFR FSS MSS DSS fwc (born 8 November 1948) is a retired Nigerian army officer who served as Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of Army Staff. He is the Pro-Chancellor of the University of Calabar

Agwai was born on November 8, 1948 in Kaduna, a city in Northern Nigeria, to the family of Agwai Gidan Mana, a Police Constable and Shera Agwai, a housewife. He hailed from Gidan Mana in Kachia Local Government Area of present day Kaduna state. He hails from a Christian home and later became the President of Fellowship of Christian Students at Government Secondary School, Zaria in 1967.