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OPINION: Akpabio, Akpoti-Uduaghan In Court Of Public Opinion

Published

8 months ago

March 4, 2025

By Suyi Ayodele

Counsel: ‘Miss Gibson, in this dwelling on Van Buren Street where you live, which the President owns, is there any means of private access one could use to go from downstairs to the upstairs or vice versa?’

Witness: ‘Do you mean, is there some kind of private stairway or hidden passage by which the President and I could have seen one another without being seen by others?’

Counsel: ‘I will request you to refrain from rewording or redefining my questions, Miss Gibson. I mean precisely what I asked. Did the President have any private means of getting to your quarters or you to his?’

Witness: ‘No. Unless he used a ladder-or the vine that grows on the back wall – but I doubt if the President is, or ever was, that athletic or romantically foolhardy.’

“The spectators in the gallery roared with laughter, and some stamped and whistled.” (Pages 666-667).

The above quotes are from Irving Wallace’s Avant-garde novel, The Man 1964). The episodic novel is about the impeachment proceedings against the very first Black President of the United States of America, Douglas Dilman. Fictional as The Man is, its closeness to the literary device of verisimilitude makes it a compelling and unputdownable work of art!

The closest to its plots in real life is the December 19, 1998, impeachment of President Bill Clinton by the United States House of Representatives of the 105th United States Congress on the allegations contained in the two articles of impeachment bothering on “Lying on Oath” and “Obstruction of Justice” in the Clinton-Monica Lewinsky sexual harassment saga.

Writers are prophets. Irving Wallace (March 19, 1916-June 29, 1990) was one. Thirty-four years after the American novelist wrote the fiction about the impeachment of an American President by the US congress and his acquittal by the US Senate on allegation of sexual immorality, Clinton came face to face with the predicament predicted in the fiction, The Man!

The only difference, however, is that while the fictional President Douglas Dilman was a Black man, Clinton is Caucasian. Both ‘Presidents’ were saved by the US Senate which voted 66 against and 34 for, in the case of President Dilman; and 50 against and 50 for, in the case of President Clinton. To impeach an American President, the movers of the impeachment must secure 67 votes from the senators.

One interesting thing about the fictional and real impeachment motions in the above two cases is the fact that at the last minute, when the trials were hot in the US Senate, both Dilman and Clinton, against protestations from the counsels, volunteered to defend themselves, their integrity and the sanctity of the American Presidency!

The duo surrendered themselves to the hostile scrutiny of the House Managers, who, during cross-examinations, asked questions that went deep into the beings of the personalities. But at the end of the day, the essence of American Democracy was upheld and the sanctity of the US Presidency preserved. Little wonder that America progresses irrespective of the personal failings of its leaders.

Miss Wanda Gibson in the opening quotes was the suspected mistress of President Dilman. Those opposed to the coming of Dilman, a Black President in the Oval Office, concluded that Gibson and Dilman being singles, and having been close friends for five years, there was no way they would not have gotten into some levels of intimacy.

Gibson’s response under cross-examination above, and the subsequent one (page 669) to wit: (‘Of people like you, Mr. Manager, who might think him too black for me, and me too white for him, and who might cry out that our union would be mongrelizing the Congress, where he was once a member, or the white House, where is now the President…” , nailed the trial and secured victory for Dilman!

I have taken the pain to review The Man here because of its relevance to the current happening in the Nigerian Senate between the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and the senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. Like Dilma who was also accused of sexual immorality against his White House Social Secretary, Miss Sally Watson, Senate President Akpabio is being accused of sexual harassment by a fellow senator, Akpoti-Uduaghan. What do we make of this?

Before we dwell on that, permit a little exercise in sexuality and power here. Pau-Michael Foucault (October 15, 1926-June 25, 1984), a French historian and philosopher, did seminal work on “The History of Sexuality” (1976). In an article published on “The Atlas Society” on Foucault’s Sexuality, especially on the Frenchman’s Theory of Desire, Foucault asserted that “any time desire is present (presumably including sextual desire), the Power Relation is already present.” The philosopher had earlier posited that sex and power “both hold to a juridico-discursive (a model that views power as negative, repressive and based on violence) concept of power that sees power as essentially negative, something that constrains us or holds us back…”

These positions on those two human virtues or vices, appear, unfortunately, tally with the Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde (October 16, 1854-November 30, 1900), who submitted that “Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.” How true? How many men of power, or men-in-power are disciplined enough to draw a line between their influence and their sexual urges? How many men of power have gone down because of women and what is between their laps?

Senator Godswill Akpabio is no doubt swimming in a stormy water which is also infested with wild crocodiles, this time. I want to sincerely believe that the Senate President is not under any illusion that this matter is one that will go away easily.

Again, I also do sincerely hope that Akpabio is aware that it is not only his reputation that is at stake here but that of the institution he represents – the Senate. If he has those understandings, I expect that the number three man in the country will do that which is noble, transparent and allow all due processes to take their course so that justice will not only be done but will be seen to have been done!

At this juncture, I don’t think it is proper for anyone desirous of seeing the end and truth of this matter to pitch tent with any of the gladiators in this case. It would have been a different matter if the two gladiators were not responsibly married. The fact that their spouses had come out to defend them also makes the matter messier.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Gambaryan’s Flower Of Thorns

However, there are certain things that cannot be allowed to go away just like that; our sentiments notwithstanding. Chiefly amongst them is the antecedents of the two people involved in this dirty fight. For Senator Akpabio, the odds are against him when it comes to the issue of his relationship with the opposite sex and his propensity towards becoming an incurable misogynist! The same thing with Akpoti-Uduaghan and her almost every-day-skirt-pulling tale!

We shall not forget here Senator Akpabio’s 2020, encounter with Joy Nunieh, the former Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), who alleged that Akpabio tried to get fresh with her at a guest house in the Apo area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

During that encounter while Akpabio was the Minister of the Niger Delta, Nunieh claimed that she had to slap the Akwa Ibom senator, and boasted to have held the exclusive trophy of the first, and possibly, the only woman to have slapped Akpabio! The feeble response from Akpabio then was the fact that Nunieh was not married to one man! How is that an issue, or the concern of the senator? Does a woman, being “not married to one man” give licence for another man to touch her inappropriately?

This is why I think that Senator Akpabio will do himself and the Senate a lot of good if he allows this new accusation from Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan to be thoroughly investigated. And he must allow that! The Senate President must, as a matter of necessity, and in line with good conscience and good convention, first withdraw, or restrain the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, from going ahead with the probe of the alleged misconduct against Akpoti-Uduaghan until the probe of the allegation of sexual harassment is dispensed with.

More importantly, Senator Akpabio must show good example by stepping aside from the office of the Senate President while the probe of the allegation of sexual harassment is determined! Nothing can be fairer; nothing can be more just! He must personally appear before any panel set up to investigate this matter. Presidents Dilman and Clinton did the same. Senate President Bukola Saraki also set the precedent in the 8th Senate. Akpabio should not and must never be an exception!

And for the Senate Beauty Queen, and self-acclaimed Cinderella, Akpoti-Uduaghan, one can only hope that the Kogi State Senator will realise that she cannot continue to accuse every man who crosses her path as being interested in what is between her laps! It is no longer funny that every man wants to have the beautiful senator ‘Take care of him’, as she alleged against the Senate President.

Methinks Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan needs to do a retrospection on why every man would want to get intimate with her. Granted that she is beautiful, but she is not the first meteor in our Senate! The Nigerian Senate had had more beautiful women before, and it still has. What is the issue with her such that men with suspected acrobatic libidos will not allow her to rest?

I asked this question because in the past, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan once alleged that Reno Omokri, former aide to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, made passes at her. The allegation was later discovered to be a lie from the pit of hell as Omokri was in the far away United States on an official assignment the day the senator claimed the sexual overtures took place in Abuja!

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Buhari’s Poverty Of Truth

Now it is Senator Akpabio. But that does not mean that Akpoti-Uduaghan’s current allegation is not true. My worry is what if Akpabio proved, the way Omokri did, that Akpoti-Uduaghan lied? What will be left of her reputation? Natasha says she has all to prove that Akpabio wanted her to warm his bed; I pray, and fervently too, that the Kogi senator is not just grandstanding. I wish she could prove, and convincingly too, that Senator Akpabio’s third element is not as disciplined as the position the Senate President occupies!

This now takes us to the coming into the fray of Mrs. Unoma Ekaette Akpabio, wife of the Senate President, and High Chief Emmanuel Uduaghan, husband of Akpoti-Uduaghan. Mrs. Akpabio, in defending her husband, has equally gone to court, asking for N350 billion in damages.

Without prejudice to the matter, I wish to state here that it would have been a lot better if Madam Ekaette allowed Senator Akpabio to defend himself and thereafter seek legal redress. The only exception here is if Mrs. Akpabio wanted to convince us that her husband would naturally come home to tell her if he had any urge towards any woman! That is funny!

Mrs. Akpabio said her husband is “a disciplined and a jovial man.” I don’t question that. But I think she should read more of Foucault, knowing that her husband is the third most powerful person in the country, today. Also, and more importantly, the assertion by Ryan Guzman “that every man is a sucker for women with beautiful eyes” could be useful here. She doesn’t have to share the sentiments in the philosophies above!

However, I find it instructive, the warning by Akpoti-Uduaghan, while responding to Mrs. Akpabio, that what would be revealed would shock the Senate President’s wife. Whatever it is, I feel, and strongly too, that Mrs. Uduaghan should have allowed her husband to prove his innocence while she held prayers for the truth of the matter to come out at the end of the day.

But if I find Mrs. Akpabio’s response funny, especially the insinuation that her husband is too “disciplined” to lift another woman’s skirt, the response of High Chief Emmanuel Uduaghan, left me dumbfounded! I still would like to ask who advised the Warri High Chief to pen that response?

I have read High Chief Uduaghan’s response a couple of times and I keep asking on each occasion: what sort of man goes to another man making passes at his wife to ask, “respectfully” the libidinous character “…to extend the courtesy and respect my wife deserves while also honouring the friendship between us. We reached an understanding and agreed to resolve the issue amicably.” How ‘amicable’ can such a reconciliation be with a man who wants to explore and exploit another man’s well?

That was what the Itsekiri High Chief penned in his response to the allegation. An African man confirmed that his wife “confided in me about her interactions with the Senate President.” And all he could do is to approach “the matter with the utmost maturity and responsibility, as it is my duty as a traditional leader who has immense respect for constituted authority and upholds core family values to foster peace and harmony.” Then he added that “despite this agreement, my wife continued to express concerns about the harassment she has endured from the Senate President.” That is an African man! That is an Itsekiri High Chief talking about the man alleged to have asked, continuously, his (High Chief) wife to pull down her skirt!! Wonderful!!!

May my mind never play the ‘evil spirit’ on me on a Tuesday morning! I tried unsuccessfully to ask my Itsekiri friends if they have anything close to Magun (climb not), Tesho (strong and weak) and Alemaro (permanent turgidity) in their local pharmacies! What would have been a better response to a randy fellow, whose libido can only be satisfied with the inner recesses of a married man, than to send him back to his maker or make him permanently inactive in the down region? Oh, ‘evil spirit’, I cast you to the bottomless pit!

Jokes apart. The whole issue rests squarely on Senate President Akpabio. He must be civil, civilised and decent in the way he handles this matter. Professor Itse Sagay (SAN) has words of advice for him in this circumstance. He says: “In developed societies like Western Europe, the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, he (Akpabio) would have been asked to step down, but have we developed to that level? I don’t know.” Senator Godswill Akpabio owes this generation, and the ones coming, the onerous responsibility to answer the professor’s poser. Mr. Senate President, I ask: HAVE WE DEVELOPED TO THAT LEVEL?

News

Why We Expanded Presidential Amnesty Scholarship Scheme — Otuaro

Published

3 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

Otuaro (middle) in a group photograph with the PAP foreign scholarship students in the United Kingdom after an interactive session in London on Saturday, 25 October, 2025.

The Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dr Dennis Otuaro, has expressed his unwavering commitment to ensuring that more indigent students and communities of the Niger Delta benefit from the PAP scholarship scheme.

He stated this while explaining what informed his decision to expand the scheme and increase formal education opportunities for poor students, and to build a huge manpower base in the region.

A statement issued by Mr Igoniko Oduma, Special Assistant on Media to the PAP boss said Otuaro spoke during an interactive session in London on Saturday with the beneficiaries of the scholarship initiative deployed for undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in universities across the United Kingdom.

The engagement, which was at the instance of the PAP boss, provided an opportunity for the Office and the scholarship students to discuss issues pertaining to their welfare and challenges with a view to addressing them.

Otuaro said that while in-country scholarship deployment was 3800 in the 2024/2025 academic year, the figure increased to 3900 in the 2025/2026 and foreign scholarships were about 200.

He attributed the increase in deployment to the massive support of President Bola Tinubu and the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Otuaro stressed that he was greatly encouraged by the President and the NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and that he knows how impressed both of them are concerning the PAP initiatives, which align with the Renewed Hope Agenda.

He reiterated his call on the students to justify the huge investment in their education by the Federal Government by studying hard to make good grades.

He also urged them to conduct themselves and be responsible ambassadors of Nigeria while in the U.K, stressing that “you will be adding value to your families and communities when you complete your programmes successfully.”

The PAP helmsman said, “We want the scholarship programme to impact more students and communities in the Niger Delta. That’s why we have expanded it and increased formal education opportunities.

“We want you to take this opportunity very seriously so that the government, too, will be encouraged. I know how much support His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu GCFR, gives to the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

“Mr President and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, are very impressed with what we are doing. On your behalf I would like to, once again , thank His Excellency and the NSA for giving you this life-changing opportunity. We are confident that Mr President and the NSA will continue to support us.

“The knowledge you are receiving in your institutions today is to enable you plan yourself and prepare for the future. Whatever knowledge you gain cannot be taken from you.

“So as PAP scholarship students, we expect responsible and good behaviour from you. Government is investing heavily in you and you have the obligation to justify the investment. Be agents of change and avoid acts of mischief while in the U.K.”

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OPINION: A ‘Crazy’ African Nation, Where Citizens Eat And Drink Football

Published

5 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

By Tony Erha

It was in October, a semi-summer-month and twilight of the year that ushers in the chilling and extreme winter. A nonagenarian woman gave me a friendly smile that revealed cheeky dimples. As I bowed respectfully to her ripened age, she offered a leathery hand for a handshake, which I received warmly, returning her infectious smile. For a youth who prays for longevity shouldn’t deprive the elderly of the walking stick. I had helped her, carrying a furred handbag to our seats on a night-long intercity bus, from Istanbul to Ankara, in Turkey, the Balkan nation, where we stopped over, in year 2004.

She spoke Turkish rapidly, whilst I retorted in a passable and incoherent Turkish language that ‘I don’t speak the official language of the only country of the world that is located on two continents; Europe and Asia. “You American?” She asked in English. It was obvious that my jeans, necklace and a fez cap that I upturned, in the manner of the Yankees, might have portrayed me as one. “No. I am a Nigerian”, I said, dragging the words. “You Nee-jay-rian!” she exclaimed, whilst I nodded confidently. Then she was elated; “Okocha Jay-Jay!” She spoke to others in the bus that clapped and hailed. I wondered why a 91 years-old-woman, was so passionate about football and one of its heroes, as if she was a youth.

At her request, an old video of a football match showed the mesmerising display of Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, viewed on a television set affixed to the bus. There were instantaneous excitement and catcalls each time Okocha, the great football ‘talisman’ from Nigeria, did his ball flips and dribble-runs that displaced his opponents, earning him one of the few (if not the greatest) football entertainers in football’s history. It was as if the video tape, recorded in his notable plays in Besiktas, a Turkish club side, was a live match. So great was Okocha’s global fame that the old woman relived again; “Jay Jay Okocha is a dangerous footballer, who’s full of tricks on the field of play. The only trick he didn’t do with the ball from his bag of football artistry was to play on top the swimming pool”. In Mustafa Ataturk’s nation, footballers of Nigeria’s decent had and still make their soccer very eventful.

Victor Osimhen, the leggy playmaker and striker with a dye-hair like the white mushroom head, who recently renewed his contract with Galatasaray, a Turkish top team, is also a Nigerian, who has received the applause in the peninsula country and across the globe like Jay Jay Okocha. Candidly, Oshimen, the goal mechine, who is a tonic to the Turks and football fans across the world, also does the unimaginative with the round leather, but certainly not with the same fascinating skills of Jay Jay! But the Turkish fans are readily tilted to football fanaticism.

Victor Osimhen

If it’s ‘fanatic-fans’ in Turkish football, it’s certainly ‘supporters hooliganism’ in the United Kingdom (UK), where association soccer (football) was founded in 1863, with similar kicking games played in Greece, China and Rome since 2,000 years. In UK, football is played with fanfares, pool betting and media vuvuzela. English soccer is a gainful entertainment industry raking in huge gate fees from plays, promotions, television and media razzmatazz, which is often imitated in Nigeria, with passions and ‘occult’ following. So worrisome was the ‘social hype and lawlessness’ youths and others attach to English soccer that security operatives have constant migraine fighting soccer addiction and frequent street brawls.

Jay Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Dan Amokachi, Taribo West and other Nigerian stars, that once dominated and currently rule other foreign clubs, opened the floodlight of extremist football following into the country. Once upon a time, the then Prince Charles (now the king of England), was spotted (with young boys) playing the game, inside the Buckingham Palace, all wearing jersey number ’10’ with Jay Jay Okocha’s name inscribed). That the number-one-global-royalty adored soccer by wearing the jersey of a footballer from a third-world African nation, somewhat illustrates that which is often said about soccer being more than a mere sport. ‘Football Tripper’, a British online news porter, describes soccer as “oxygen” to numerous men and women. In Brazil, the South American nation, there is a deity called “Soccer”, as well as it’s a vivacious Reggae, a unique music genre in Jamaica.

Still, it is food and sups in Nigeria. In this Africa’s most populous nation, with plentiful viewing centres and liquor spots, there are live television football tournaments and soccer video games, with consumable food, alcoholics, carbonated drinks and some ‘unlawful substances’ that are at the behest of business owners and ‘intoxicated’ fans.

In what soccer dramatics came to know as ‘the Dammam Miracle’, viewing centres, beer parlours and restaurants were instantly sold out in the country, in 1989, after ‘footbocrazy’ Nigerians, stormed the streets in prolonged wild celebrations. For the Nigerian U-20 football team, at the FIFA World Youth Championship, held in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, came back from a four-goal deficit to level up and defeat the Russian counterpart, making the Nigerian team the first to come back from a semi-final to win a FIFA tournament. Soccer, indeed, is a crazy sport in Nigeria. Once upon a time, a man had shattered the screen of his expensive television, because Austin Jay Jay Okocha, his favourite star, had lost a penalty in a continental match!

It’s said that football, especially when the Nigerian national teams of men and woman play, tends to unite Nigerians than other national blights that turn them apart. Now, the current national fanaticism is for the Victor Osimhen-inspired Super Eagles, to qualify for the 2026 World Cup gala, even though it has to go the extra obstacles of playing more legs, whereas the team had frittered the early opportunities to qualify.

And sensing that most Nigerians care less of the economic woes that plagued them, but for the football fad, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the nation’s President, would cash-in to feed their ago awarding huge cash to high profile football tournaments and wins, like he recently accorded the Super Falcons, the female national team, for achieving a similitude of the Dammam miracle, to bring home a coveted African Cup of Nations (AFCON) trophy!

News

Ex-soldiers Fume Over Lifetime Benefits For Sacked Service Chiefs

Published

10 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

The sacked Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, and two other service chiefs, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, are set to receive generous retirement benefits.

The benefits include bulletproof vehicles, domestic aides, and lifetime medical care.

Their exit follows President Bola Tinubu’s appointment of new service chiefs on Friday.

General Olufemi Oluyede has been named the new Chief of Defence Staff, while Major-General W. Shaibu takes over as Chief of Army Staff.

Air Vice Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke becomes the new Chief of Air Staff, and Rear Admiral I. Abbas the Chief of Naval Staff. The Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major-General E.A.P. Undiendeye, retains his position.

The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, said in a statement on Friday that the removal of the service chiefs was in furtherance of the Federal Government’s ongoing efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s national security architecture.

According to the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers and Enlisted Personnel in the Nigerian Armed Forces, signed by President Tinubu on December 14, 2024, the service chiefs are entitled to substantial retirement packages upon disengagement.

The document stipulates that each retiring service chief will receive a bulletproof SUV or an equivalent vehicle, to be maintained and replaced every four years by the military.

They are also entitled to a Peugeot 508 or an equivalent backup vehicle.

Beyond the vehicles, the package includes five domestic aides — two service cooks, two stewards, and one civilian gardener — along with an aide-de-camp or security officer, and a personal assistant or special assistant.

They will also retain three service drivers, a service orderly, and a standard guard unit comprising nine soldiers.

The benefits extend to free medical treatment both in Nigeria and abroad, as well as the retention of personal firearms to be retrieved upon their demise.

However, while officers of lieutenant-general rank and equivalents are entitled to international and local medical care worth up to $20,000 annually, the benefits for the service chiefs, though not stated in the document, are believed to be considerably higher.

The HTCOS reads, “Retirement benefits for CDS and Service Chiefs: The following benefits shall be applicable: one bulletproof SUV or equivalent vehicle to be maintained by the Service and to be replaced every four years. One Peugeot 508 or equivalent backup vehicle.

‘’Retention of all military uniforms and accoutrement to be worn for appropriate ceremonies; five domestic aides (two service cooks, two stewards, and one civilian gardener); one Aide-de-Camp/security officer; one Special Assistant (Lt/Capt or equivalents) or one Personal Assistant (Warrant Officer or equivalents); standard guard (nine soldiers).

“Three service drivers; one service orderly; escorts (to be provided by appropriate military units/formation as the need arises); retention of personal firearms (on his demise, the personal firearm(s) shall be retrieved by the relevant service); and free medical cover in Nigeria and abroad.”

However, the policy specifies that such entitlements apply only if the retired officers have not accepted any other appointment funded from public resources — except when such an appointment is made by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In such cases, the officers, according to the document, will only receive allowances commensurate with the new role rather than a full salary.

Retired soldiers protest lavish perks

Reacting, some retired soldiers decried what they described as the luxurious benefits and entitlements reserved for service chiefs and senior military officers.

They lamented that junior personnel continued to suffer neglect and unpaid entitlements despite years of service to the nation.

The retired officers expressed frustration over the disparity in welfare and treatment between senior and junior ranks within the military.

One of the leaders of the discharged soldiers demanding their owed entitlements, Sgt. Zaki Williams, expressed frustration over the entitlements reserved for the service chiefs.

Speaking in an emotional tone, Williams, who claimed to be speaking for more than 700 soldiers in his group, said many retired non-commissioned officers had been abandoned despite dedicating their lives to defending the country.

He said, “I don’t really understand how our people in Nigeria do things. The people at the top always do things to favour only themselves. They don’t care about the poor or the junior ones who sacrificed everything.”

The retired sergeant recalled that government officials had made several promises to improve their welfare, but none had been fulfilled.

“Since the day they made those promises to us, we went back home and didn’t hear anything again. Everything just ended there. We’ve been waiting till now, but nothing has happened,” he added.

Williams said the situation had left many of his colleagues demoralised and divided over whether to continue pressing for their entitlements.

“Some of us said we should protest again, but others refused. We told them that day that we were not going for another protest. If the government wants to help us, they should help us. If not, we’re done,” he said.

He also accused senior military officers of frustrating efforts by the defence ministry to address the concerns of retired personnel.

According to Williams, life after service has been extremely difficult for most of them who retired voluntarily or were discharged without compensation.

“How can someone retire after years of service and still not get their entitlement? Many of us can’t even build a house. The senior officers have houses, cars, and everything good, but the rest of us have nothing,” he said.

He added that the little compensation given to some was not enough to rebuild their lives.

“If they give you N2m today, what can you really start with it in this country? You have children, family, and responsibilities, yet you can’t even afford a plot of land,” he said.

Expressing disappointment, he said most junior officers had lost faith in the system.

“We’ve handed everything over to God,” he said quietly. “We’ve cried and done our best. They promised us, but in the end, it’s still zero. We haven’t seen anything. That’s why many of us are now silent.”

Another retired soldier, Abdul Isiak, lamented that promises made to retired personnel had remained unfulfilled, leaving many struggling to survive.

He said, “All you said they would give to them would be done promptly, and they are more than what we need to sustain our lives. This is very unfair. We have suffered a lot, and they’re yet to give us our entitlements after leaving the service. What is our offence? Is it because we are junior officers?”

The former sergeant said the senior officers continued to enjoy generous retirement packages while lower ranks were denied their due benefits.

“We are preparing for another protest for them to pay us. This is very bad,” he said.

(PUNCH)