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OPINION: Oshiomhole’s Toxic Advice To Okpebholo

Published

3 months ago

July 15, 2025

By Suyi Ayodele

It was meant to be a joyous occasion. Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State has just been affirmed as the governor of the state by the Supreme Court. Okpebholo’s election was challenged by Asue Ighodalo, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the September 22, 2024, governorship election. The soft-spoken former senator had won all the litigations from the petition tribunal, through the Appeal Court and up to the Supreme Court. Such a feat calls for celebration.

The governor’s party’s stalwarts from the All Progressives Congress (APC) gathered somewhere in Abuja to savour the victory; the last of any litigation that could come his way on the account of the election. The mood was peaceful. Leaders, one after the other, took time to appraise the situation. All of them gave glory to God for seeing their candidate and party through the tedious court proceedings. They were united that it was time for Governor Okpebholo to hit the ground running and bring good governance to the people of Edo State.

Then it was time for Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to talk. Penultimate Saturday in Benin City at the APC South-South stakeholders meeting, Oshiomhole was reduced to a mere seconder of the motion to adopt President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and all the four APC governors from the zone for a second term. Senate President Godswill Akpabio presided over that engagement. Oshiomhole, a former governor of Edo State, former National Chairman of the APC and former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) was reduced to a mere spectator at the Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub, the venue of the APC meeting. Why did that happen?

I hate to speculate. Methinks that the leadership of the meeting knew that Oshiomhole might pollute the atmosphere if allowed to talk. He had at the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) meeting held in the same Benin City days earlier made some unguarded statements! One may, therefore, conclude that shutting him out was to avoid another verbal disaster. You don’t have to believe this claim, especially if you are not familiar with the politics of the Senate Presidency playing out in the South-South.

Now back to the Abuja celebration of Okpebholo’s victory at the Apex Court. Immediately Oshiomhole held the microphone, all attention shifted to him. And he answered his name that day. Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron, is praised as Okùnrin kúkúrú abìjà kankan (The short man with a tenacious fighting spirit). Oshiomhole shares that praise name with Ogun. This is what the septuagenarian politician cum labour leader said:

“You now have the time to look into that hotel about which they say Edo money, in tens of billions of naira, was spent, and now they claim it’s just a minority shareholding. You have time to revisit all those roads that were built at the worst costs compared to the ones I built and that are still there. Governor Obaseki must come out of hiding to answer these questions.”

From those statements, it is clear that the only thing that is paramount in the mind of Oshiomhole is the probe of former Governor Godwin Obaseki, the immediate past governor of the state. Obaseki, as we know, is Oshiomhole’s successor as governor. But a long-articulated vehicle has since passed between the once-two-jolly-good-fellows! How Obaseki, who at a time was Oshiomhole’s best man at his wedding, turned to be an archenemy of the senator representing Edo North Senatorial District is what should interest political scientists and anyone desirous of studying ‘how friends become enemies’ as a research proposition.

My immediate reaction to Oshiomhole’s call for the Obaseki probe is to quickly look at how convenient it is for Oshiomhole to speak from the two sides of his mouth without qualms! What sort of human being can have two or more opinions about an individual within a short space of time? Again, how come that of all the lofty ideas anyone could give to Governor Okpebholo, the only one that easily came to Oshiomhole is the idea of a probe and its attendant distractions? Why do our leaders don’t consider the consequences of their utterances first?

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Dr. John L. Gustavson is a Neuropsychologist in Grand Junction, Colorado, USA. He is reputed to have “special training and skill in evaluating and treating nervous system disorders, and determining how illnesses, injuries, and diseases of the brain and nervous system influence the way a patient feels, thinks, and behaves.” When asked to define why people talk first before thinking, Gustavson named such a condition as “Verbal Disinhibition” or simply “Disinhibition.” Here is his definition of the neuropsychological term, Verbal Disinhibition:

“Verbal disinhibition” or simply “disinhibition.” is saying or acting impulsively without considering the potentially damaging or embarrassing consequences of the words or deeds. Disinhibition may result from a brain injury, intoxication, mental illness, or MERE STUPIDITY (emphasis mine).”

How fitting is this definition? While the 2024 Edo governorship electioneering lasted, all the statements that could have caused the APC the election were made by Oshiomhole. He, for instance, almost ruined the APC campaign then with his allusion to a couple married for many years without a child between them! Yet, he is an elder statesman, going by his age, experience and political outings.

The elders of my place reason that when there is an elder in the marketplace, a child strapped to her mother’s back is not likely to have his neck twisted (Àgbà ki wà l’ójà kí orí omo tuntun wó). But shouldn’t we rethink the axiom, given that we have elders in the mould of Oshiomhole around us? Or which is more dignifying to ask the governor: to give the best to the people and to ask him to go witch-hunting for an imaginary frenemy? Why do Oshiomhole’s friends always turn to his enemies?

For instance, when in 2016, Oshiomhole was selling the same Obaseki to the Edo people, he called him the compressor of the air-conditioning of his government’s economic car. That was at a time Oshiomhole appointed Obaseki as the head of the economic team of the government for eight years. Oshiomhole told the entire Edo people that his administration would not have achieved anything but for Obaseki who generated the funds and managed the state’s economy, prudently!

At another time, specifically on January 18, 2018, when the then Governor Obaseki bought a fleet of buses for intra-city transportation, Oshiomhole enthused: “I am humbled by your accomplishments, and I am proud that we made promises on your behalf during the 2016 electioneering period and you have accomplished a lot of the promises. You are working tirelessly to industrialise the state and make life easy for the people. Many governors are complaining that there is no money, and they are unable to pay salaries, but you have developed your creativity to attract resources to the state.” Today, the same Obaseki, in Oshiomhole’s judgement, is the lead character in the Arabic folk tale, ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’, and he must be probed!

Obaseki is not the first to suffer from Oshiomhole’s “verbal disinhibition.”. On July 16, 2012, after Oshiomhole was declared winner of his second term governorship bid election, he described the then President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as, “…Indeed a statesman, a man of honour because there were adequate and effective presence of security agents on ground. I am impressed because the army actually played a neutral role in the election.”

Move forward to June 14, 2017, when Oshiomhole was assessing the same President Jonathan, hear his magisterial conclusion: “Nigeria was in danger if Jonathan continued in office.” The same “statesman and man of honour” suddenly became the one of whom Oshiomhole would later say: “Once I concluded that Nigeria was not in good hands, I also had to do everything possible to ensure that he (Jonathan) was not re-elected…”

The Edo-born politician did not spare his own too. On November 7, 2019, as the National Chairman of the APC, Oshiomhole’s verdict on the performance of the late President Muhammadu Buhari was a president that “has done well”. He eulogised Buhari, who passed on, on Sunday, in a London hospital, and said: “President Buhari can beat his chest to say I have started well; I have started fast. You cannot call him Baba Go Slow now. This time, he is Baba Fast,”

Fast forward again to Saturday, June 28, 2025, and listen to Oshiomhole describe Buhari’s administration as the ruiner of the nation’s economy. Speaking at the PGF meeting in Benin City, Oshiomhole said the Buhari administration, by using the Ways and Means policy, “printed over N31 trillion”, adding that the “excessive printing of money” crippled the naira.

“This is what the immediate past CBN governor was doing. In the Senate, we have the record that they printed over N31 trillion which they called Ways and Means. You know when the government wants to deceive people they use jargon. They called it Ways and Means but I can tell you what it means: it means a situation in which the government prints banknotes, not based on what we have earned or any resources, just print banknotes to go and share with the people to meet their money illusion. It is the result of that excessive printing of banknotes that led to the collapse of the naira,” Oshiomhole ruled of the same administration he once said was the best ever!

So, when he counselled Okpebholo to probe Obaseki, I wondered how the voluble politician would explain how he transformed from a khaki-wearing labour man to a man of stupendous wealth that he is today! Is Oshiomhole ready to answer questions such as: What was his worth as a labour leader? What is his worth today? How did he acquire his Iyamoh countryside village-within-village home? How about the property in Abuja, the vehicles in his convoy and many more luxuries?

Please get me right. Okpebholo should by all means probe Obaseki. No past leaders suspected to have helped himself to our patrimony should keep and enjoy the proceeds of such heists. But, please, let us extend the probe to Oshiomhole. Let us see how clean he was as a governor. If he turns out to be a saint at the end of the exercise, let us raise a fund-me-account to sponsor his beatification!

Thankfully, Governor Okpebholo appears to have heeded Oshiomhole’s prompting. The governor has said that he would probe Obaseki. He even mentioned some outrageous figures he alleged Obaseki misappropriated. I think in the interest of the public, Obaseki should be made to account for what he did or failed to do while in the office.

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I also hope that Okpebholo himself will begin to keep a clean slate of events while in the saddle because no matter how long he spends in office, he will vacate it one day, and he will be summoned to account for all his actions and inactions. I think Nigeria is on the path to good governance with this call to accountability.

The only advice here is that Okpebholo should not allow those with low emotional control to dictate the pace to him. The governor should know that his primary duty is good governance to make life more abundant for the Edo people, home and in the diaspora.

I don’t know the governor’s mental aptitude to cope with distractions. He should do a self-assessment to determine if he can combine governance with political distractions of probes and what have you. More importantly, he should know the Obaseki camp will not sit back; and that it is not going to be an amala and ewedu exercise.

More importantly, Governor Okpebholo, I think, should begin to change the narrative that he is a man without his mind. Now that the distraction of litigation over his governorship is over, he should begin to demonstrate that he has the capabilities in all ramifications, to direct the affairs of the state according to his personal convictions and judgment of what is good for the state and its people. He must show that he doesn’t need a human prompter like Oshiomhole before he can take the right step as the governor of the state.

The governor should not allow any individual to use him to settle any personal score. If probing Obaseki is the best for his administration and the people of Edo State, Okpebholo should go ahead and do that. But if that exercise is just to satisfy the bruised ego of some megalomaniacs somewhere, the governor should think twice.

Oshiomhole brought Obaseki to Edo State and made him the head of his economic team for eight years. Against all protestations, he went ahead and made Obaseki governor, deploying all the state’s machinery to back him up. Whatever went sour between him and his godson after 12 years of romance remains personal to the two of them. Nobody has the illusion that Oshiomhole fought Obaseki because the latter was not doing the right thing. We can only hope that one day, the duo will have the moral courage to tell the whole world what went wrong between the groom and his best man!

I hate to dwell on the reality that if Oshiomhole were to have his way, Okpebholo would not have been in the saddle today as the governor of Edo State! In fact, Okpebholo’s clan, the entire Esanland, would not have been anywhere near the Dennis Osadebey Avenue known as Edo State Government House! But success, they say, has many relations. If there is equity in the Edo political structure today, the credit goes to Obaseki and his sense of fairness and tenacity of purpose when it mattered. His Esan Agenda proposition and the tenacity with which he prosecuted it, produced a governor of Esan extraction in Okpebholo today! Oshiomhole, the new adviser-in-chief today, had other plans!

I submit, however, that the fact that Obaseki pushed for a governor of Esan extraction, is never an excuse why he should not be called to account for how he managed Edo affairs and its finances when he was governor. The only plea here is that Governor Okpebholo should look beyond Obaseki and probe how much of Edo money was committed to, for instance, the Airport Road project and the Benin Water Storm project. The probe should be holistic!

News

Why We Expanded Presidential Amnesty Scholarship Scheme — Otuaro

Published

15 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

17 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

22 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)