Why I will never recommend any of my children to join army – 76-year-old veteran

Colonel Nasiru Salami (retd.), a 76-year-old military veteran, has voiced concerns over the mistreatment of retired Nigerian Army personnel by the military authorities.

Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief to mark the 2025 Armed Forces Remembrance Day, Salami lamented the non-payment of his pension and other entitlements since retirement.

He highlighted the plight of many ex-servicemen, describing their living conditions as dire due to the government’s failure to honor its obligations.

Salami urged the Nigerian government and military authorities to prioritize the welfare of veterans, emphasizing that their sacrifices in service to the nation deserve recognition and support.

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“We are asking for 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,” he said, appealing to the government to do the needful and improve the welfare of him and his colleagues.

Salami said the Nigerian Legion in Lagos has over 24,000 members and that the Nigerian government was yet to pay him and his civil war survivors war bonuses over 50 years after.

The 76-year-old civil war veteran however, stated that he won’t encourage any of his children to join the Nigerian Army.

“For now, I will never recommend any of my children to join the Nigerian Army,” he said.

“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 you 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.”

In a touching narration, he chronicled his voyage in the military right from his enlistment into the Nigerian Army in October 1967 to when he was moved straight to the battlefield for the Biafra war just after six weeks of training.

Salami, who is now the Secretary of the Nigerian Legion, Lagos Chapter, said he was on the battlefield for 11 months during the civil war between 1967 and 1970.

He also recounted painfully how he almost lost his right foot during the war, adding that plastic materials were embedded in the foot to augment the severe injury he suffered during the war

He said he went back to the war front to continue the war.

(Punch)