No fewer than ten officers of the Nigerian Army, all on the ranks of General, have retired from active service after they successfully served out their number of years.
The Generals are from the Nigerian Army Armoured Corps (NAAC) and comprise six Major-Generals and four Brigadier-Generals.
They are Major-General Nsor Okpa Ojiji, Major-General MH Magaji, Major-General GB Audu, Major-General M Danmadami, Major-General JG Mohammed, Major-General UI Mohammed, Brigadier-General A. Israel, Brigadier-General BA Mohammed, Brigadier-General D. Abdulsalam and Brigadier-General SP Akpan.
While speaking on behalf of those who were also pulled out of service, Ojiji expressed happiness at their ability to complete the years of active service successfully and thanked the Army leadership for the roles played.
He appealed that more should be done for those still in active service to make them perform optimally in serving Nigeria.
He said: “We recall that the Nigerian Army Armoured Corps (NAAC) has a lot of challenges, which range from poor accommodation to inadequate professional and medical facilities, amongst a myriad of others.
“Today, however, I am happy to note that there are many very functional accommodation blocks; even the ambience of these barracks is very welcoming. Many resources and efforts have changed the situation. This is heartwarming.
“Kudos to commander NAAC, his team of officers, soldiers, and their families, who are determined together that things must improve in the corps.”
Ojiji talked about the need to tackle poor equipment grading, especially in formations and units and urged the Minister of Defence to look into it.
He said: “We hope that the minister of defence, Alhaji Badaru Abubakar, also make this his cardinal objective during his tenure. I plead with the Hon. Minister through this medium to deem it fit to do so.“
The commandant of the Armoured Corps, Major General Mohammed Ahmed, congratulated the retired officers and wished them well in their future endeavours. He urged them to make themselves available for consultations and helpful advice on making the Armoured Corps better.
He said: “We are happy we did what we should do. We carry out a lot of services to the community, ranging from free medical services to the provision of pipe-borne water, among others, and if they tell us about their problems, we promptly attend to those problems.
“There is no army in the world that has enough, and the Nigerian Army has developed its capacity to the level that you can see in most of our equipment, which is highly maintained.”