Nigerian army Personnel, Sgt Hassan Adewuza has written an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari exposing what he called continuous corruption and failure of Military Hierarchy in the the institution.
In the letter dated 10th April and obtained by IgbereTV, Adewuza revealed how Senior military officers collected huge bribe from politicians during the 2023 general elections to compromise the polls.
In the letter which was also copied to The Vice President, The Senate President, The Speaker House of Representatives, Minister of Defence, Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, and Chairman Senate Committee Army, Adewuza said the country is sitting on a keg of gun power and may explode any moment if the president fails to take urgent action.
The letter reads in full…
“Honestly want to call on the attention of Mr. President on the above mention subject. It is no longer a top secret but an open secret that the Nigerian military is fantastically corrupt especially, the Nigerian army. This has been proven by the events of the past few years starting from the fight against insurgence/banditry to the just concluded elections.
“Every senior officer in the Nigerian Army today care more of his pockets and careless of the lives and welfare of his subordinates. In the just concluded election, the Nigerian police paid every policeman the sum of N180, 000 whether they took part in the election or not, but in the Army, those that took part in the elections exercise where paid N10,000, N9,000 and N7,500 depending on the command and some command nothing was given to them even pure water. And it was no secret that millions of naira was disbursed to the military for this purpose. Some military commanders even collected huge sum of money to turn blind eyes on intimidations, killings and suppression of voters.
“I am writing to you today Mr. President to look into the plight of junior members of the army especially the order ranks because a day of reckoning is coming. We have suffered for far too Jong. It seems like in our cadre there is no dignity in Labour.
“We work like elephants but eat like ants. lmagine how it feels like after putting in more than 20 years of your life in the service and still be treated like trash. A young oommissioned officer today receives a better treatment than a very senior NCO, It’s very painful and we can’t take it any more.
“Mr. President, loyalty is one of the core values of the army but let me Inform you that loyalty is almost, if not completely dead in the Nigerian Army. We have more of eye service than loyalty. No soldier is willing to die for senseless leaders any more.The country is not worth dying for especially when you think of the ill treatment you receive from your leaders or is
it the ill treatment our dead colleagues families receive.
“Our lives are now seen as wasteful sacristies to fill the pockets of inhuman senior military officers. The army is poorly paid and poorly equipped e.g. In the armored corps, an armored battalion is supposed to be equipped with 36 battle tanks but name one armored battalion in Nigeria today that have 5 serviceable battles tank. How many mechanized battalion today can be proud of one or two serviceable Armored Personnel Carrier (APC).
“Toyota Hilux which is supposed to be a logistics vehicle is now our main operational vehicle in the Nigerian army and yet you call this an Army.
“Mr. President we want an Army that meets internationaI standard, we have what it takes as a nation to do that. We feel ashamed to call ourselves soldiers when we meet In foreign missions with our counterparts from other nations.
“For these reasons anger is building up in the Army. Soldiers are angry and something have to be done quickly or you will see Ghana’s June 4” 1979 happeningin Nigeria.
“This in-house cleaning will shake the nation and Africa. Soldiers leaving the job in high numbers and most reasons is loss of interest that shoold have send a signal but no. Do not Say I didn’t warn you, Soldiers are angry, do what is necessary, Do not forget this country is now sitting on a keg of gun powder and any little spark can cause a deadly explosion.”
