Col Nasiru Salami (rtd), a 76-year-old Civil war veteran, yesterday said he would never allow his children to join the army.
Speaking on Channels Television’s ‘The Morning Brief’, Salami alleged poor treatment of military retirees by the authorities.
He said, “For now, I will never recommend any of my children to join the Nigerian Army. I am their father and they are seeing me now that my life is not to their expectation. They would want me to be higher than this, full of joy and other things that would make them happy. How would I now encourage them to join the army? I have two graduates now and I said to them: ‘never think of going to join the army. If you want to join, maybe the Navy or the Air Force. I’ve not been there, but I’ve been seeing them and I’ve been hearing about them because they are treated better.”
Salami said the Nigerian Legion in Lagos had over 24,000 members, complaining that the government had not paid him and other civil war survivors.
“We are asking for a war bonus, those of us who fought the war. I retired in December 1983 and they promised us heaven and earth that they would give us our war bonus, but up till now, we have not seen it.”
