76-Year-Old Nigerian War Veteran Vows to Not Allow His Children from Joining the Army.
Col. Nasiru Salami (retd), a veteran of the civil war, has voiced his displeasure with what he called the inadequate treatment of Nigerian Army retirees by military officials.
As a guest on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday, January 15, 2025 Armed Forces Remembrance Day, the 76-year-old veteran expressed his worries.
Salami gave a moving account of his military career, beginning with his recruitment in the Nigerian Army in October 1967.
He was sent directly to combat during the Biafra war, just six weeks after enlisting.
Salami, who is currently the Lagos Chapter Secretary of the Nigerian Legion, claimed to have fought in the Nigerian Civil War from 1967 to 1970 for 11 months.
He described his traumatic experiences, including how the conflict caused him to lose his right foot, which had to be amputated.
He went back to the battlefield to fight despite the injury that would change his life.
Salami declared that because of his own experience, he would not advise any of his kids to enlist in 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.
”Salami revealed that there are more than 24,000 members of the Nigerian Legion in Lagos and bemoaned the fact that, more than 50 years after the civil war, the government still had not paid him and other survivors their war bonuses.
Concerns regarding his unpaid pension and other post-retirement perks were also voiced by him.
Those of us who fought in the war are requesting a war bonus.
He urged the government to keep its word and enhance the lives of veterans like himself.
“I retired in December 1983, and they promised us heaven and earth that they would give us our war bonus, but up to this point, we have not seen it,” he said.
