The Armed Forces Remembrance Day which was celebrated yesterday in Abuja and across the various states, has attracted criticisms from Nigerians who believed that remembering the nation’s fallen heroes would have gone beyond the usual ceremony of wreaths laying by the President, Governors and officials of government who see the routine as a major past time in the discharge of official duties.
Though, President Mohammadu Buhari in his speech at the ceremony, acknowledged the supreme sacrifice of the nation’s fallen heroes, and urged well meaning Nigerians in both public and private sectors to partner with the government in order to carter for the welfare of slain soldiers’ families and wounded officers who are now incapacitated.
But a widow of a fallen soldier who gave her name simply as Aisha, said the death of their breadwinner marked the beginning of suffering as the government have abandoned families of fallen heroes to their fate.
Aisha, who is a mother of three children, disclosed that she and her children were evicted from the barracks six months after the death of her husband at the battlefield with the recalcitrant Boko Haram insurgents in Borno state.
At Dodan Barracks in Ikoyi, Lagos which was the supreme military headquarters during the Nigerian civil war before it was moved to Abuja in 1991, widows and children of fallen heroes populate the community like sand dunes in the desert.
Miriam, a 28years widow with two children, said her husband died in the battlefield barely three years ago, and since then, she and her children have been living on charity on daily basis as each passing day comes with fresh challenges.
“After the news of my corporal husband’s death was eventually disclosed to us, we were paid a paltry sum of fifty thousand naira monthly for the up keep of the family. But six months afterwards, we were served with ejection notice from the barracks. Our plea for the deadline extension fell on deaf ears.
Today, Miriam and her two children, aged, five and seven are squatters in a shanty tucked away in Obalende, popular suburb in Lagos.
” I work as a cleaner in offices in the Island. But the take home pay is barely enough to feed my children much less of paying their school fees. Hence, they dropped out of school. The children can’t learn any trade because I don’t have the money to pay for their apprenticeship. They presently joined their peers in the neighborhood begging for alms just to eke a living,” she said.
Like Miriam’s children, others were seen roaming the streets of Obalende with no visible means of livelihood. Right under the bridge at Obalende down to the stretch of Khaffi were large presence of children, hawking one edible commodity or other. They are generally referred to as “barracks children”, perhaps, because of their aggressive behavior.
A tailor in the area disclosed to The New diplomat that most widows of the slain soldiers because they have been abandoned by the government and family members, resorted to prostitution and engaged in other daily petty jobs just to make a living.
Ironically, the Chief of defence staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor in his speech stated that the armed forces remembrance day celebration is not a day for mourning but a day to give thanks to God, that men and women of this great nation once served, are serving and will continue to serve this country.
Unfortunately, family members of fallen heroes are still mourning their dead as they suffer abandonment from the government, the state, the people and relatives, The New diplomat investigations revealed.
A random survey conducted by The New diplomat on Army barracks in Lagos, Warri in Delta state, Abuja, Kaduna Rivers Edo and Akwa Ibom states the stories are the same melody of abandonment and rejection by families of fallen heroes by the government and even the people they died for protecting.
Churchill Okonkwo in his twitter handle lamented that “Nigerian soldiers remain the most underrated and under appreciated army in the world. As we mark 2023 armed forces remembrance day, all I can say is thank you.”
Stephen Igboanugo in his twit, “they joined the Nigerian Armed Forces as abled bodied men and women to fight, defend and protect the territorial integrity of the country from external aggression. But today, they have become disabled having lost their limbs, hands, and others have paid the supreme price, leaving their families and loved ones behind to suffer.”
Rivers state Governor, Nyesom Wike noted in his address that since the Nigerian civil war ended after three gruesome years of internecine warfare, there’s hardly a year the nation’s armed forces have not been assigned to one bloody combat mission outside the country.
Against this back drop, Wike announced the inauguration of #100million scheme for ex servicemen to carter for their welfare.
On the sacrifices of the armed forces and their families, the Governor said we respect them for the dangerous professional path they willingly chose, and we loved them as children, relations, friends and members of our communities in the nation’s service.
“But they loved more, and even more significantly as fellow Nigerians by risking their lives, health, family and future in the battlefield to defend and protect us from harm’s way in return for nothing .
“We owe them a great deal as a nation, as a state and we owe them as a people. Collectively we owe them the debt we cannot repay. Though, the much we can do on this day is to extoll their virtues, commorates their sacrifice, and honoured their heroic exploits so they would never be forgotten for putting their lives on the line for us and others to live,” Wike lamented.
In the same vein, the national youth leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Israel Dayo wrote in a twit that” flag doesn’t fly because of the wind that blows but flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.
On today’s armed forces remembrance day, I remembered fallen heroes, including my biological father in the Nigerian Air Force. To our Gallant fallen heroes, we do not take your service for granted. We thank you for your service.”
But in his twitter handle, Nweke Gideon prayed that: “All our heroes who died fighting for this nation, your sacrifices shall not be in vain. To those in uniform serving today and to those who had served in the past, we honour you everyday. Through the scorching heat of the day and the blistering cold of the night they were there, ever ready to safeguard our lives and properties.”
It was in the light of all these that Governor Wike appealed to well meaning public and private individuals and organizations to contribute to improving the social and economic well being of Legionnaires, wives and children of fallen heroes.
