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As the drumbeats of celebration rent the Nigerian air space, even with despondent and nostalgic feelings while celebrating the country’s 62 years of chequered and painful existence, many are quick to forget the labour of our heroes past and present, according to our National Anthem, especially our uniformed personnel who over the years have sacrificed their lives for the peace and unity of the country. To sacrifice one’s life is not what anyone can simply wish away.
There is a pathetic story of two young boys walking along the road. As they were about to cross the busy road, behold a rough driver skipped the road after losing control of his vehicle because of failed brakes and, as he menacingly approached the boys, the taller boy grabbed the hand of his friend and pushed him away while he tried to also escape from the oncoming car. Unfortunately, he was mistakenly blocked by his friend whom he helped to escape the accident. He was knocked down, his body jerked and he died instantly.
Those who saw the incident lamented he died while trying to save his friend. Indeed, may we not allow the labour of our heroes to be in vain.
The car driver is the enemy, while the dead boy is the citizen and the tall friend is our security agents.
Many of them were either recruited or got enlisted either by interest, passion or love for the uniform. They are ready and willing to pick or face the bullet in order to save another person. Thank goodness their recruitment regulation stipulates a certain number of years before retirement. Unfortunately, many lose their lives either at war or other operational duties around the country, by paying the supreme price.
Recently, retired and serving soldiers converged on the premises of the Ministry of Defence, Abuja, in protest, demanding their unpaid allowances.
According to them, the minister of defence, Major General Bashir Magashi (retd.), had refused to disburse the allowances despite approval by the Federal Government.
Military veterans, under the umbrella of Retired Members of Nigerian Armed Forces and the Coalition of Concerned Military Veterans, staged the third phase of their protests over the non-payment of their security debarment allowance in Abuja.
Spokesman and secretary of the retired soldiers, Ambassador Roy Okhidievbie, who is the national secretary (REMENAF), said the demonstration was to demand the payment of the security debarment allowance owed them by the Federal Government. That the minister could not come out to address the demonstrators really spoke volumes.
Unfortunately, such nonchalant attitudes abound around most security agencies in the country, where leaders sit on the entitlements of serving security personnel. Such insensitive and uncaring behaviour of security leaders at different levels of administration and operation as displayed by the minister should not be encouraged in the new Nigeria we are yearning for after the 2023 elections. It is this uncaring behaviour exhibited by leaders in the security community that encourages the civil populace to disregard officers and even have the effrontery and boldness to carry arms against our security agents. Last month, the country went agog when news broke out about a female professor, Mrs. Duke of Area 1, Abuja assaulting her female police orderly, even as she allegedly ordered her maids to beat her mercilessly, boasting to be a friend of the wife of the current Inspector-General of Police. Also, a traffic police officer was beaten to pulp by an irate motorists. Should I add the sacking of police officers from their stations by hoodlums and criminals, while soldiers have been manhandled while on official duty?
These are the fallouts of the attitudes of leaders such as Defense Minister Magashi towards hundreds of retired soldiers who served Nigeria with their best but after their service one of their own who was supposed to understand their plight disregarded their complaints; even when they were demonstrating, he was sipping tea in his office. Why would civilians who worked with him in the ministry and those on the street of Abuja who witnessed the sorrowful plight of gallant retired soldiers not behave likewise towards them? After all, an outsider would extend respect to a family that respects itself. I tried to research on abnormalities between security leaders and their subordinates as it concerns retired soldiers marching on the streets in demonstration, only to discover that Afghanistan and Nigeria top the list of retired soldiers embarking on protests, sequel to non-payment of their allowances.
The question is: who else can call the minister to order except the President who appointed him? Meanwhile, the 62 years of Nigeria has been made possible by brave Nigerian soldiers and other uniformed personnel. Even as I write, thousands of them are at the war front combating terrorists, made up of Boko Haram and Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), while many more are battling with regional agitators internally. Once, this writer asked Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, former Chief of Army Staff, during an exclusive interview at the headquarters of Operation Lafia Dole in Maiduguri, if he could mention the number of soldiers that have died in the course of the war against Boko Haram and other terrorists. Expectedly, he was blank, referring me to higher authorities.
This goes to show that it is not a football game that our soldiers are playing at the war front. The casualty figures translate when we see widows and orphans of soldiers in the barracks.
These are uniformed men and women that have sacrificed their lives for the safety and unity of the country. So, anywhere we see them, we should salute them with the word “BRAVO”.
As a first-year student of Lagos City College, Yaba, once, on our way to school, we came across a uniformed soldier, a sight that was not too common on the streets of Lagos then, as he marched like a machine-controlled robot. We students trailed him, synchronizing our young legs with his professional steps, as we admired his well-ironed and starched uniform plus his shining boots. Suprisingly, we got so entrenched in this activity that we forgot that we were going to school.
That soldier represented every other soldier that has ever carried arms to protect us all. That is why on this auspicious occasion, this column congratulates every uniformed security officer of Nigeria. BRAVO
