vibre:
What a tragedy and the unfortunate thing now is that he is in hell because no Nigerian army person can enter heaven so even the usual 72 virgins that we will get in heaven is not available for him.

just listing to your self that is how people look for trouble if you don’t no what to type just keep quiet you better pray for forgiveness

(Good evening friends please read this true life story of this
Soldire and comment on it). Thirty two-year old Lawal
Ahmed is a Corporal in 115 Battalion of the Nigerian Army.
The Funtua, Katsina State-born soldier enlisted in the
Nigerian Army on 27 August, 2003, and served in 6
Battalion, Akwa-Ibom State, 1 Brigade Garrison, Sokoto, as
well as State Task Force (STF) Jos. His service number is
03/54/5867. On 22 April, 2014, Lawal said he applied to the
Chief of Army Staff for voluntary discharge to enable him
contest a seat in the Katsina State House of Assembly, but
that the army turned down the application. He claims the
working conditions in the army is terrible, and has therefore
decided to take his case to the media, since, according to
him, his employers won’t listen. He spoke with Chuks
Akunna
Can you please start by introducing yourself and why you
are here?
My name is Corporal Lawal Ahmed of 115 battalion,
Northeast. I am 32 years from Funtua, Katsina State, and
attended Government Science Secondary School, Paskari,
Katsina State. I joined Nigerian Army on 27th August 2003.
I was posted to 6 battalion Nigerian Army, Ibawa, Abak,
Akwa Ibom State and served from December 2003 to 2006.
In 2007, I was promoted Lance Corporal and posted to 1
Brigade Garrison, Sokoto. From there I was taken to STF in
Jos. Before STF, I received training at 1 Div, Kaduna. In
2011, I was promoted to the rank of Corporal.
Can you recall the names of some persons who joined the
army with you?
We were 30 boys, one girl - Ajaiyi Kemisola, she was the
only female among us, as private.
Why are you here?
I decided to come to THISDAY to speak on the terrible
working conditions in the army.
Are there no ways of channeling your grievances in the
army?
None. We are discouraged from asking questions. Twice, I
applied to leave the army to continue my life as a normal
human being, with dignity. On both occasions they rejected
my application. That is why I left.
Isn’t that AWOL or desertion?
Call it anything. I am ready to sacrifice my life for the
betterment of the army. The conditions are terrible.
How?
Let me give one example. When we were taken to STF,
according to the brief of former Chief of Army Staff- General
(Azubuike) Ihejirika, we were to spend six months. We
ended up spending close to four years without being
changed and without explanations. You needed to see how
tattered our uniforms are, not to talk of the weapons. This
is not how armies operate in other countries.
Like?
I was in Sudan in 2005, under the African Mission in Darfur.
I went there for peace keeping, as protection force.
How many of you went from Nigeria?
Actually, army headquarters garrison provided one
company, six batallion provided another company. A
company is made up of betweem 100 - 250 soldiers. My
commander was Major H. M. Labo, I don’t know his rank
now in the army. My commander in the STF was S. A.
Sangonuga, a Yoruba. I don’t know his present rank.
Which other officers did you remember?
We had Lt. Col. Olakola Micheal and Lt.Col. Rasheedudin,
my battalion commander.
Why did you join the Army?
I joined the army to contribute to the growth of my country.
Not because you were looking for work?
No. However, sadly, right from the time I joined the army, I
began to see many wrong things. There I saw people who
served the Nigerian Army for 35 years and retired at a rank
of Lance Corporal. This is bad.
You saw them where?
I saw them in 6 Battalion, I worked with them.
How did they feel?
They felt terrible because their juniors, are always ahead of
them. Imagine someone that entered the army in 1980
remaining a Lance Corporal and someone who joined 20
years later rising to the rank of Staff Sergent. How do you
expect the Lance Corporal to feel!
From that moment, I began taking notes on the bad things I
felt should be addressed in the army. I consider myself
lucky to have reached the rank of Corporal in about 13
years. Several soldiers in my units had spent more years
than me, and did not commit any offence, yet are Privates.
What is your status? Are you still in the Nigerian Army?
I am still in the service. I wrote on the 23 April, 2014, for
voluntary discharge but the Army refused to release me.
What reason did they give?
None
Who did you write to?
I wrote through my commanders to the chief of army staff.
Till date nothing has been heard of my letter. My sector
commander was Col. Olagunju. But one soldier with whom I
trained in Jaji told me that the reason may be that the army
is under-manned.
You trained in Jaji?
Yes, we were over 800 soldiers. Some were turned back due
to medical reasons. Gen. Okoro, who was Commander,
Nigerian Army Infantry School, addressed us that we were
going to receive new weapon training. I never saw any new
weapon, apart from the weapon used in my unit.
What kind of weapons?
A-K47, 60mm Commando Mortar and 10mm mortar, even
though nobody ever came to teach me how to operate the
mortar guns. The truth is that most soldiers don’t know how
to use such weapons because they have never been taught.
Why?
I don’t know. There was this funny incident when I was in 1
Brigade, Sokoto. When our annual range classification was
conducted, my commander said soldiers with motorcycles
should assist those who didn’t have to the range. Imagine
the army didn’t provide a vehicle to take us there. My
commander at the time, in 2008, was Lt. Col. O. A. Dada. I
don’t know his rank now.
Did you serve in the Northeast?
In 2014, I served in Gombi, Adamawa State. From there we
headed for Fella Junction, in the name of going to see new
weapon, but there was none. The APCs we used were so
old. At some point some were used to tow-start the others.
We didn’t have tanks. It was after spending three days with
our advance that we were able to borrow four new APCs
from another battalion. We didn’t have communication.
How did you operate without communication?
That was the problem. Something happened in Fellatu Mia.
Our soldiers were bringing food to us. We thought they were
Boko Haram terrorists and opened fire on them. We had
killed and injured many before realising they were our
troops. This was very sad.
You mean field officers don’t have radios communication?
Only battalion, company commanders and administrative
officers have Motorolla radios. Company commander,
company sergeant supposed to have his own, but I don’t
know if Nigerian government cannot provide or whether they
provide the money and the top officers divert it.
Couldn’t your people have at least used GSM
communication?
There was no GSM network there. I don’t think Nigerian
Army do tell the families what happened to their loved ones
because if they tell their families, they will take action on it. I
have never seen a country that will send soldiers to go and
fight without providing communication gadgets, only in
Nigeria.
Can you tell us what day this attack occured?
No, I cannot remember the date because I lost my war
diary. But from Fella we start advancing on the Miya -Fella
road. At about 6:30pm, we ran into the terrorists around
Miya and we fired almost till day break. Luckily, we
overpowered them, and came back in the morning.
Basically, our prayers served us because with the weapon
we used, I don’t think we would have overpowered them.
What weapon did boko haram use?
They were carrying very powerful weapons. In fact, that was
the first time of my seeing such weapons.
What kind of weapon?
Very big anti-aircraft guns. See. When a soldier dies in the
army, the family will be in for a very hard life, because after
three months, Nigerian army will block their salary.
What happens thereafter?
Some families spend more than two, three years chasing
the dead soldier’s benefits. By right, the army is supposed
to show love to the deceased soldier’s family to get their
benefit. In most cases, the families spend all they have
following up. When they run out of cash, they will abandon
the money and some people will convert the money to
personal use, leaving the families to suffer.
How true is this claim?
If you have any soldier from the rank of warrant officer
down to private, call ask them, because if I give you any
number, you might think I collaborated with the person. You
are a journalist. Go and investigate.
Tell us how Boko Haram usually ambush soldiers.
The usual method is to push cows to us. They get over 100
cows and push them to us. In the confusion, they launch
their attack. How they get the cows is what baffles us.
Maybe they are stolen cows. And most times, our soldiers
abandon their weapons and run. Some get killed. The
problem isn’t helped by godfathers in the army. Very often
you see soldiers and officers boasting that they are sons or
relations of this General, as if Nigerian Army belongs to
them. Maybe.
From your presentation, you seem to be very educated. Are
you a graduate?
I am a school certificate holder. The army only allow people
with godfathers to go for further studies. For people like us
with none, you remain a Private all your life. I served twelve
years without going for any course. And in Nigerian army, if
an officer passes out from NDA, either regular or short
service, the army are the one to nominate him to course, but
we, other ranks, they think we are slaves to them. One
should think it is in the best interest of the Nigerian Army to
train their soldiers, but the Nigerian Army will block you
from going on course so that you remain blind, not knowing
much about your profession.
Why do you say that?
The officers love the status quo. They are afraid of you
challenging them on what you might end up learning from
the courses, so they rather you remained with zero
knowledge. Our officers drum it in our ears that, as human
beings, we have no rights, only privileges. And many
soldiers have come to believe this. I disagree with them
because I know that I am first a human being before
becoming a soldier. Since I joined army, nobody ever
showed me the terms and conditions of service, to read, to
know what and what and where I will find my right. We don’t
know what the Armed Forces Act says. All we know is when
you commit, your superior will give directive to the clerk to
prepare your charge.
This is serious.
It is more serious than you think. When I was at Eket, Exxon
Mobil, the company trained us directly. mobile trained us
directly. I was an orderly to a white man, and there was this
day in 2005 I asked him, “why are you paying your staff
overtime and leaving us with just N15,000 each month?’
Apparently, my question jolted him. He told me he was
paying my Commander N90,000 for me and that I should
not ask for any other over time. Imagine! Means my
Commander had been pocketing N75,000 in my name.
Multiply that times the number of soldiers under him and get
an idea of how much he was making in our names. When I
complained, my Commander responded by withdrawing me.
Other soldiers accused me of ‘sabi-sabi”. They don’t care if
their rights are trampled on, they just want to get by. As a
Corporal, my monthly pay is N57,000, that is less than
N2,000 a day. On the other hand, a Cadet, Termer 1, what
you call Year 1 in the university collects N60,000 a month.
He is collecting more salary than me. A Termer 5 or final
year student in NDA earns almost twice what a Warrant
Officer, who has put in more than 25 years in service earns.
Don’t forget that the WO has a family and children in higher
institutions. This is a very unjust system.
Now, we have a new Commander-In-Chief, who happens to
be from Katsina, your home state. Since Buhari took office,
Boko Haram appear to have stepped up its activities. What
is your recipe for ending insurgency in Nigeria?
My advice to Mr. President is to retire all officers from the
rank of Brigadier General. They have no use in Nigerian
Army, because all of them have been feeding fat from the
insurgency and it won’t be in their best interest to end it. If
President Buhari will take my advice, let him look for a very
capable Lieutenant Colonel and appoint Chief of Army Staff.
Afterall, Gowon, I think, became Chief of Army Staff as Lt.
Colonel. Several officers- Usman Katsina, Obasanjo,
Benjamin Adekunle and others- were GOCS as Lt. Colonels
and performed excellently well. What rank was Ojukwu when
he led Biafra to war? Most of the Generals we have today
have so politicized the military that there is little room for
professionalism. They are businessmen and want to
compete with the Dangotes and Ibrus. Let Buhari begin by
flushing them out.

Good day friends How is your day going please pray for Plateau state there was attack in a village call Mbar in Bokkos LGA 8 people Where killed last night How Long will this continue last week 2 people Where killed in the Same village and many houses set ablaze properties destroyed God save your people from this problem let's be united and stop the killings, one Nigeria united we stand divided we fall broadcast this massage till it get to the all world Thanks for sending it to someone on your contact

Good day friends How is your day going please pray for Plateau state there was attack in a village call Mbar in Bokkos LGA 8 people Where killed last night How Long will this continue last week 2 people Where killed in the Same village and many houses set ablaze properties destroyed God serve your people from this problem let's be united and stop the killings, one Nigeria united we stand divided we fall broadcast this massage till it get to the all world Thanks for sending it to someone on your contact

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