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EXCLUSIVE: Nigerian Army Withdraws 165 Students From Military Schools, Distressed Officers Request Army Chief’s Intervention

Jul 17, 2023 | Security | 0 comments

According to SaharaReporters, Nigerian Army soldiers and commanders may study.

According to SaharaReporters, the Nigerian Army has pulled its students from military institutions nationwide.

According to SaharaReporters, Nigerian Army soldiers and commanders may study.

The affected students attend the Nigerian Army Schools of Medical Sciences, Ojo, Finance and Administration, Apapa, Education, Ilorin, and Environmental Science and Technology, Makurdi.

According to a leaked July 5 document, final-year students at impacted colleges were also affected.
The message ordered 165 troops to return to their units since the Nigerian Army Headquarters, Directorate of Army Training policy of 2023, did not authorise their courses of study.

While the Army suffers severe losses in counter-insurgency operations, courageous Nigerian forces have neutralised hundreds of Boko Haram and ISWAP militants.

“Imagine the behaviour of the new Chief of Staff (Major General Taoreed Lagbaja), the affected troops have been studying these courses before this stupid policy was created or reviewed,” one concerned soldier told SaharaReporters.

Another commander opposed the new policy: “Some troops of the Nigerian Army recently got this painful news of their departure from various military institutions. Returning to our units was ordered. The Army preaches variety and dynamism but needs to practise it. I shouldn’t avoid learning about other army disciplines because I’m in the Infantry or Armoured Corps. I was approved to study at the Nigerian Army Medical School or Nigerian Army School of Finance after passing the requisite senior authorities’ admissions tests.

“This was passed through Army Headquarters for final permission and authorised, then you wake up to the news that you will be pulled from school due to a policy. Such approaches leave a military manpower development vacuum. It’s unjustifiable.

“Implementation of such policies should be for new applicants and not those who are either in their final year or halfway through their courses, what do you tell a student who has spent 3 or 4 years and with just a year left to finish up that he will be withdrawn, after investing time, energy, money only for his or her dream to be shattered overnight, now what do you think will happen to such soldier mentally and physically? The soldier may not recover.

“Such regulations shouldn’t apply to military institutions since this is the only method the other ranks and files of the Army get to equip themselves knowledge wise.”

“It is often said that when you join the Nigerian Army, you will have a fulfilled life and yet we keep truncating such quest for knowledge, and we keep complaining that the Army is lacking specialist to fill up certain positions, we have soldiers who are struggling and studying to cover up the gaps by seeking knowledge within the military schools and we want to deny them the opportunity to be useful to the Army,” another aggrieved soldier said.

“We are appealing to the Chief of Staff to help look into the withdrawal of these 165 soldiers and probably use his good office to assist them in finishing their studies; the swift action can help prevent waste of resources already spent by these soldiers, also to avert mass Exodus from the army because of this new development.”