At his handing over ceremony yesterday, former Chief of Defense staff Alex Badeh said he led a military that lacked equipment. Now read what he said about the military when he was still in office in January 2015. He said this in an interview with Nigerian Defence Magazine here
“The Nigerian military is very well taken care off. We live in houses we don’t pay accommodation for. We have buses that bring troops to work every day and take them back home. We don’t pay for light; we don’t pay for water. Our salaries are good compared with what is paid in the civil place. If someone with school certificate joins the army, by the time he is five years in the service, his salary has doubled that of a graduate. Why do you think Nigeria is doing that for us?
Nigeria is doing that for us because we have vowed that we will defend our nation if need be with our blood. So for a soldier to come up and say ‘I’m not well equipped’ yet you have a riffle; what do you want? You want APC, you want tanks? The basic weapon of an infantry man is riffle, so why should there be mutiny? Why should you accuse your commander of leading you into an ambush? Come on! How can your commander lead you to an ambush? If they kill my soldiers, then of what use will I be? No commander will do that deliberately.
This is the time for Caesar, all the time has been for God, all the time we have been taking salaries, we go and do exercise saying we I do this, I will do that; I will fly like this ad fly like that. All those ones you are preparing for, the day Caesar will come and demand for his pound of flesh, and Caesar has come now and he is saying, look come and do your work, and you are saying you are not going? No, it does not work like that.”he said
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