₦airaland Forum

*THE INVISIBLE WOUNDS OF THE NIGERIAN SOLDIERS*

By AH GULANI

The life of an average member of the Armed Forces is filled with confusion, sacrifice, and silent victimization both from within and outside our homes. While we are seen in public as symbols of courage and strength, behind closed doors, we are slowly fading shadows in the lives of those we fight to protect, including our very own families.

Our children grow up believing it is their mother who loves them most , who pays for their school fees, buys their clothes, feeds them, and nurtures them. Why? Because they barely see us. Duty calls us away , first to distant deployments, then to conflict zones. We miss birthdays, graduations, recitals, and religious holidays. To them, we are only a voice on the phone or a pixelated face on a video call.

Yes, salaries are paid. But more than 70% of it goes to our families to ensure their wellbeing. We work ourselves to the bone to give them comfort, yet our physical absence plants a seed of emotional distance. Many of us have missed Sallah and Christmas celebrations not once, but for years because duty had other plans.

By the time we die, our children don’t truly mourn our absence, it is something they have already grown used to. Our portraits on the wall are nothing but a formal reminder of a ghost who was once a father. We didn’t share enough time to leave strong memories. Even our wives may God bless them feel more like widows during our service years. Out of 20 years of marriage, we might spend only 30% of the time with them physically. Our lives are lived through calls and blurry WhatsApp video chats.

Our children sometimes deny us when we go on leave, unsure whether to call us “Daddy” or “Sir.” “Daddy, when are you coming back?” becomes a regular question, and with time, even that curiosity fades.

Our parents and siblings pull at us from one side, demanding our presence, our money, our attention. Yet we must answer to the call of service. Our childhood friends have become distant leaders.Our local communities now seem foreign. We miss weddings, funerals, naming ceremonies, family meetings. We are soldiers always away, always missing.

Even our annual leave is swallowed by part time professional development, or security emergencies. We are sometimes posted to remote regions, where our tribe or religion is a minority. Yet, with integrity and patriotism, we serve diligently.

And yet, it doesn’t end there. We’ve been victims of love denied , women refusing our proposals, not because they don’t love us, but because they fear becoming widows too soon, or being wives to ghosts, only connected by mobile data. We build beautiful homes with luxurious interiors, but we end up sleeping in trenches under the hot sun , onboard a ship on tiny best shaken by deep sea waves or in swampy forests, faces buried in dust, eyes scanning for enemies, hearts burdened by longing.

We have watched our comrades dying, some with bullets to the chest, others in pools of blood, whispering the names of their wives and children. And still, we fight.

We are mocked by some of the citizens we swore to protect. “Na dem dey beat us useless people ,” they say. “Wetindem dey even do?” they mock. We walk into markets and are charged higher instead of being honored. We are ridiculed in the media when one of us makes a mistake, but our gallantry and battlefield victories go unreported. When we fall, headlines read. ‘’Two soldiers killed by unknown gunmen.” No names. No honor. No legacy from the citizens except the armed forces honor.

Even worse, our enemies have become more organized while our sacrifices are not appreciated. We protect the integrity of the nation, ensure others sleep with both eyes closed yet our own families are restless because they never know if we’ll return.

Where do you want a soldier to belong? What do you want us to be?

We are not machines. We are human. We are citizens just like you. We bleed, we cry, we miss our families too. We are not foreigners , we are your brothers, sisters, uncles, daughters, and sons.

So please, Nigerians, if you cannot love the soldier, then at least show compassion. Love us for the sake of our wives who wait endlessly. Love us for the sake of our children who only see us in frames. Love us for the sake of the country we are dying for.

Despite the ridicule and discrimination, we still love you. We can’t stand by and watch you suffer not because we are commanded to protect you, but because it is in our blood to do so.

We only ask for one thing in return, your understanding, and your humanity.

God bless you and remain favour from Almighty God.

Tsamyavictor:
Wow, just 24hrs. Honestly there are days or times when i don't have Etisalat network for up to a week and sometimes more. I have even tried porting to MTN but the service personnel said i needed to have active service on my Etisalat first.

Yours is even better in my area is been more than 6
months we seen 9mobile service

ProfessorBerlin:
Outside Buhari dey, craze man
Na craze man be that o
Animal in craze man skin

Wheriz dis woman from?

It's time already to revisit my old legend songs again. Rest on Master Country musics.

Omolara needs resetting:

Please could someone help tell me what mmm stands for ok, every thread now carries 'MMM'. please what does it mean?

che she go join the shopped items with the pikin na.

New terrorists in the land?

worthy of note.

pls help my hair is receding fast n im just 38. is there any natural remedy I'm getting worried.

Dats a big lie joorrrr!!! person don pour water for ground before.

I'm so happy for you ms G. solo jealous here.

Save the Nation movement abi wetin una call unasef..make una prepare to save una street wen Buratai go decide to pass una street because Shi'ite case go beta pass una own.

Ur sorry ass go dey jail while u freed her to bleep around. u'll be lucky if she visits one or twice bfor ur freedom.

APC an extended arm of PDP.
PDP = PEOPLE DECEIVE PEOPLE APC = ANTI PEOPLE COORDINATORS.
You defected from PDP to APC to form what? another assemblage of PDP.

Deliverance is wot is needed n not a systematic approach though good but is not enough.

How una dey!

Just 5 seconds jor.

Y u go kill dat pretty gal under u..

Lol.

Abeg Happy birthday to my nairaland crush Cutesexy wit d prettiest nose ever. Love u n long live.

Wait i dey com ma go brush my mouth me too want comment...




...OK I don com


Wetin concern me??

Did u just say first date? how do u tell someone u met on a first date is wifable or not. She agrees for a sex at ur first date is not a pointer to being unwifable nor does her disagreement makes her wifable. You are a smooth talker with magic fingers u won her over n had ur way doesn't permits u to blacklist her as unwifable. black pot brings out white fud n not all dat glitters is called gold. Take tym to study her to know her worth b4 drawing conclusion.

Tank me lera..

mcdokwe:
I was born into what I consider a street life, public compounds and all its troubles.

My hustling parents still made sure I got the best especially in education but that didn’t in any way help as I picked up the most annoying and shameful personality.

I even as a kid would keep late nights without carrying out household chores and when it becomes apparent that I couldn’t escape my parents “do good,” opt to sleep out in trucks and sheds, I would occasionally sneak in and proceed to make under the bed my beautiful foams, this habit was cultivated to mitigate the effect of the surprise floggings mum especially had this habit of using deep into the mornings when she’d flog sleep out of my eyes. By the time she’d drag me out, I’d be fully awake to bear the consequences of my sins. How I managed to stay top of my class in primary school then still escapes me as I’d play my life out on daily basis.

I would pilfer on people, unsuspecting people whose heart I easily warmed up into and would sustain my belly and as such could keep avoiding home.

Oh! God bless my mum and grant my dad eternal rest. I’d constantly make “withdrawals” from their “home banks” and with it, live large in school. And constantly devised various methods to avoid detection. My neatly wrapped note books served as conduits to hide my loots to avoid detection and when that method failed, I resorted to hiding them in shoes, pens, I’d tear up the folds of my shirts and shorts and pass the folded cash into them. God knows if I had continued like that, I would have ended up a highway robber and maybe dead by now.
I was closely marked so I no go do, but two loose seconds were more than enough for me to hit a bounty when need be. I was a nightmare to my parents and at appoint when my dad moved and left us to the care of my mum, my constant acts made my dad make up his mind to come and take him along lest I killed his darling wife with HBP.
It is totally and completely ignoble thing to do, and looking back, I wonder what prompted me into such.

While staying with my dad, he once called me and told me how I was his favorite child. Till date, I still can’t tell how and why, because apart from the consequences of being the black sheep of the family, I was often the last to get gifts as they bothered me not.

Yes, I spent more time with my dad possibly due to the close marking I needed to keep my deviant behavior in check and naturally predisposed to his kind of job, but I still didn’t and haven’t seen how I was the favorite child; but I was deeply touched. He spoke of how my act pains him more than it would have if it were to be from anyone else and it sunk, he also said I wouldn’t stop being his favourite child notwithstanding. Today, thanks to those words, I’d rather dig poo to feed than pilfer on anyone. Well, the house chores are still there but I can at least shout my younger ones into doing them.

My Dad’s words (sweet and not the curses) made me a better person that I am today.

I had hoped that he lives for me to show him how much proud I was prepared to make him but death had other plans which were stronger.

I thank God for u. I wasn't lucky to get such life changing admonition from my paleh till his demise. U and I had same growth but mine was turned around by divine mercies of God.

saint047:
Since the euphoric feeling of a new year has catapulted & corjouned around the globe, Im obliged to wish you an ephemeral, fantabulous & suppersatamagorgeous new year. May your x-mass be puntuated with a revanchism whose magniloquence can only be theatropistically analysed by the use of areminiscent excarbation.compliment of the Season pals

U wicked!!!

Ay04z:
y are all girls in a relationship,and many guys are single?

Is that a topic or comment ??

If u were d one in my shoes what would u av done? i met dis babevfor about 5 months I chatted her up and she consented friendship by punching her cell digits on my phone. I would call and call till I got fed up with d madness I was like 'shoo na only u dey town?' one day she decided to oblige my request to hangout. with all d wahala of these months! After some bottles of well chilled Origin we departed the joint. As per sey evry guy man get plan 'B' I had started rummaging my head on how to subtly tell her to follow me home when she Suddenly asked me if it pleases me for her to follow me home. I know say some good guys on nairaland go decline but me sharp sharp I don gree.

Guys I bet u all know the song that was recycling in head as we drove to my abode..I DON GET ALERT GOD WIN.

But the alert I got was a wrong one cos at my place, when I attempted approaching her canal she told me it was still overflowing. na so i vex sleep my pple.

[quote author=donMIG post=41146244]That went straight to my heart....my last gf didn't do nothing to her....another guy probably doing her now.....[/quot

Dat no b joke bro.

tobimillar:
guys be careful with the way you knack akpako this period. No be by force to go more than one round... when you are tired, rest. If she wants more, buy her cucumber

WDF.. hehehehe..

yeeepppaaasrrriiiipppaaaa!!!!!
if u don't knw what DAT means pls take some tym out n Google it..

Lol.
le me yan u d bita truth.
who cares how Jesus face looks.. u sure have not seen it bef4...

He is d Great LION of Judah.. D bright morning STAR... D WELL of Life welling up rivers of LIVING WATER... D BEAUTY of God.... D very ESSENCE of creation... D SAVIOUR of d world... D FORGIVER of my (our) sins... JESUS d very LORD of ALL... D REDEEMER!!!
I LOVE YOU LORD.
So let dem haters give a transformer a warmth hug.