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