From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Faruk Yahaya, has said that unless the welfare of soldiers fighting terrorists in the country is accorded top priority, they may not have adequate motivation to fight.
The former Army boss, who is now the Zarumman Sokoto, noted that welfare and motivation constitute the basic foundation for optimal performance by soldiers, adding, “The welfare of a soldier in its entirety is essential and should be enhanced.”
Speaking yesterday at the Auditorium of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) as the guest lecturer at the Nigerian Army Day Celebration NADCEL 2025, marking 162 years of establishment of the Army, General Yahaya said there are three critical areas that need emergency intervention from the Federal Government to enhance soldiers’ capabilities in the discharge of their duty.
Speaking on the theme of lecture, “The Soldier First” Concept In Shaping A New Culture For Transformation In The Nigerian Army,” he said: “Perhaps, the greatest welfare challenge confronting the Nigerian Army is inadequate accommodation for its personnel, especially soldiers. Due to the increasing threats of insurgency, terrorism and criminality in all parts of the country in the past decades, the Nigerian Army had to increase its intake of soldiers. However, the massive increase was not accompanied by corresponding increase in real estate for the personnel. Consequently, many soldiers lack accommodation, such that there are many soldiers living in the suburbs, midst of civilians or whatever they could find or afford.
“In some barracks, two or more families are sharing one accommodation and the ills associated with this are better imagined than discussed. In view of this, the ‘soldier-first’ concept needs to accord first priority to the soldiers’ accommodation. The Nigerian Army cannot handle the enormity of this requirement. It requires special intervention by the federal government.
“Education of soldiers’ children; since the establishment of the Nigerian Army, successive Chiefs of Army Staff recognise the relevance of providing the necessary institutional frameworks for the education of soldiers’ children. The Nigerian Army welfare schools (Army children schools, Command schools, and Nigerian Military School) have been established overtime and across all military formations.
“However, the quality of education over time has deteriorated as evidenced by the increasing number of soldiers’ children attending private schools outside the barracks. The implication of this is that some soldiers are now spending their meagre income to seek for quality education for their children and this is impacting negatively on the morale of soldiers. It is therefore imperative to recalibrate and continuously improve the Nigerian Army welfare schools as part of the transformation process for entrenching the “Soldier First” concept.
“Medicare for soldiers and their families; there is no doubt that the medicare infrastructure of the Nigerian Army has undergone significant transformation over the past decade. Successive Chiefs of Army Staff including the incumbent have allocated enormous resources towards enhancing medicare for Nigerian Army personnel and their families. As part of the initiative for entrenching the soldier-first concept, this trajectory should be sustained across all levels of Medicare.
“In addition, the Nigerian Army needs to consider establishing rehabilitation centres to handle the hundreds of rehabilitation patients that have tied hospital beds at the tertiary healthcare level. In the same vein, the Nigerian Army could consider embarking on special recruitment for medical staff in order to reduce the dearth of specialists and doctors at the tertiary and primary healthcare levels respectively.”
General Yahaya summed his lecture this way: “The Soldier First concept emphasises the prioritisation of the soldier, his training, well-being and his requisite needs as an individual soldier. The success of the soldier first concept is a dependent on the soldier himself and especially on the leadership of the Army.”
Earlier in his remarks, the incumbent Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Olatunbosun Oluyede, prepared the minds of the audience on the soldier first concept, saying that it would explore the nexus that connects the evolving battlespace, generational warfare and the role of the individual soldier in operations.