Brig Gen Saleh Bala is a retired officer of the Nigerian Army. He is currently the President and Founder of the Whiteink Institute for Strategy Education and Research (WISER), and the CEO of White Ink Consult, Abuja, Nigeria.
He has peacekeeping experiences in Angola as a Military Observer (UNAVEN III), and in Cote d’Ivoire, as the Military Chief of Staff (UNOCI). An alumnus of the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria, University for Peace, San Jose Costa Rica, and the National Defense University, National War College, Washington DC, he has since his retirement in 2023 been working in areas of defense, peace, security and development, with focus on the security of the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin. Bala was the Distinguished Allied Graduate of the US Special Forces Officers Qualification Course, of the US John F Kennedy Special Forces Centre, For Bragg USA, in 1990.
He has worked in areas of policy and strategy development and advisory services on Security Sector Reforms and Transformation programmes of United States Institute for Peace (USIP), GIZ, Geneva Institute for Security Sector Governance (DCAF), the US DoD/DoS Security Governance Initiative (SGI), as well serves as resource person on programmes of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS), and the Near East and South Asia Centre (NESA), both of the National Defense University, Washington DC, USA, as well as with the George C Marshal Europe Centre for Security Studies, Garmisch, Germany, and the Federal Academy of Security Policy, Berlin, Germany.
He is a Faculty Adviser to the International Institute for Humanitarian Law (IIHL), Sanremo, Italy. Bala has served in a consult capacity to the Honourable Minister of Interior, between 2015-17, as Senior Special Assistant to the Minister on Strategy Planning and Implementation Monitoring.