Frequent Retirement as Disincentive to Military Officers’ Morale

The frequent retirement of Nigerian military generals after the appointment of their juniors as service chiefs has sparked debates about the potential impact on the morale of officers, Wale Igbintade writes

The recent letter from the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) was swift and straightforward. It directed all senior officers with “seniority on commission” above Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Regular Course 39 to immediately proceed on voluntary retirement. This development comes on the heels of the appointment of the new service chiefs by President Bola Tinubu.

The notice of resignation, signed by Maj Gen. Y. Yayaha for the Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Christopher Musa, read: “I am directed to respectfully request services to direct all officers with seniority on commission above that of Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) regular course 39 to submit their applications for voluntary retirement from service with immediate effect.” The officers were mandated to submit their applications by Monday, July 3, 2023.

The appointment of new service chiefs necessitated the compulsory retirement of approximately 100 senior officers, including Generals, Brigadiers-General, Air Vice Marshals, and Admirals from the Nigerian Army, Navy, and Air Force.

The new Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Christopher Musa, is a member of 38 regular courses; the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Taoreed Lagbaja; the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla; and the Chief of Air Staff, and Air Vice Marshal, Hassan Abubakar are members of 39 regular course. 

The directive is not the first, and it will certainly not be the last. In the last 10 years, each appointment of service chiefs had  led to a massive purge of generals from the three services of the armed forces.

THISDAY gathered that with the instant directive, no fewer than 100 generals and air vice marshals, and admirals in the Nigerian Army, Air Force, and Nigerian Navy were affected by the new directive.

On assumption of office, the president had announced the retirement of General Lucky Irabor, who was the Chief of Defence Staff; the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Farouk Yahaya; the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; and Air Marshal Oludayo Amao, the Chief of Air Staff. He replaced them with new military chiefs.

Irabor was a member of the NDA Regular Course 34. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant on June 28 1986, into the Signals Corps of the Nigerian Army.

The former COAS, Lt-General Yahaya, was a member of the 37 Regular Course of the NDA. He commenced officer cadet training on September 27, 1985, and was commissioned into the Nigerian Army Corp of Infantry as a Second Lieutenant on December 27, 1990.

Vice Admiral Gambo, the ex-CNS, was a member of 36 Regular Course of the Nigerian Defence Academy, and Air Marshal Amao, the 21st CAS, joined the Armed Forces of Nigeria as a Cadet of the Nigerian Defence Academy Regular Course 35 in January 1984.

On the other hand, the new CDS Maj Gen Musa is a member of the 38th Regular Course of NDA, and he was commissioned into the Infantry Corps on September 21, 1991.

The 23rd COAS, Maj Gen Lagbaja, is a member of NDA RC 39 and was commissioned on September 19, 1992, while Vice Admiral Ogalla, the new CNS, is a member of the NDA 39 Regular Course. The new CAS, Air Vice Marshal Abubakar, enlisted into the Nigerian Air Force as a member of NDA RC 39 and was commissioned as a pilot on September 19, 1992.

This means that the security chiefs were junior to some generals who were members of Course 37 and Course 38.

In line with military tradition, the appointment of a junior as a service chief necessitates the retirement of senior officers who outrank him. This practice had resulted in the removal of over 500 generals from the armed forces over the past decade. In December of the previous year, approximately 120 officers were compulsorily retired. The exercise was said to be in accordance with the Public Service Rules and the Armed Forces of Nigeria Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service, 2017 (Revised).

Critics have faulted the constant routine of retiring military officers in the country, saying it breeds mediocrity. Those who spoke to THISDAY said most of those appointed as service chiefs in the past were based on favouritism, tribal affiliations and quota basis and not on excellence.

They wondered why some senior officers should be retired prematurely on account of appointing their juniors as service when they can be put to other uses like sending them to military institutions to train junior officers. Others faulted the sudden and unexpected retirement of the generals instead of systematic disengagement from service for them to prepare for life outside of service.

This pattern of retirements, analysts argue, disrupt the continuity and experience within the military hierarchy, potentially paving the way for a leadership gap. The departure of seasoned officers, with their wealth of knowledge and battlefield expertise, could be seen as a loss to the institution.

Responding to the mass retirement, a former Spokesperson of the Nigerian Air Force, Group Captain Sadeeq Shehu (rtd), said the number was frightening, warning that no country would retire over 100 generals without crumbling the armed forces.

Speaking on ARISE NEWS Channel programme, Shehu faulted the process of promoting officers into major-generals. According to him, it is not ideal to have over 300 major-generals for the president to pick from, citing the consequences of others that would be forced to proceed on retirement.

He said: “If you follow the structure of the military pyramid, whoever is the president and commander- in-chief, you have already given him a few numbers of top quality officers that he can choose from. A situation where the president comes, and he has over 300 major-generals to pick from; you have not helped him.

“The problem is not the president himself. In fact, if you look at the literary meaning of section 217 on the appointment of service chiefs, as it is now, the president can even pick a colonel and say this is my service chief. He picks whoever he wants. The structure of the Nigerian military is bloated, and no other country can afford to retire 100 major-generals without crumbling their military.”

Continuing, he argued the financial burden of such a policy.

“The issue here is when you look at the money that is spent on training these people, whether it is foreign courses or the ones here, the experience we are losing, and the money we are wasting on these people and then telling them to go is not good for the national economy.

“On the individual level, I must put the premise that our President and Commander-in-Chief, according to the constitutional requirement in Section 217, has the right to appoint service chiefs, and the constitution does not tie his hands that in appointing service chiefs, he must pick either the most senior or the middle senior or the most junior. It is completely within his right to do that.

“But President Tinubu came and met about 350 major-generals across the services, so to be honest with you, his work was not even easy in picking his service chiefs. I think there is a problem that started long ago. We should not be having 350 major-generals for the President to pick from. The services themselves or the superintendents in the Ministry of Defence approved that number.”

He also highlighted the imbalance within the military pyramid, where the number of generals exceeds the recommended percentages. Shehu noted that the pyramid structure should have a larger base of junior officers, gradually narrowing down to a smaller number of generals. However, the current situation in Nigeria deviates from this ideal structure, with a disproportionate number of officers reaching the rank of major-general.

“According to the research I made, there are some courses that since they went out of the NDA, about 44 per cent of them became major-generals. This is not a good way to go about it. So, I think the failure has to do with a well-coordinated and modern military personnel management system.

He further stated, “Those of us that studied these things as far back as 2012 noticed this tendency of promoting too many generals. There are too many generals. I know the times are not like when I joined the military, but I remember in 1984, when I joined the military in Kaduna, you could hardly see a brigadier around. But what do we have now? We have too many generals.

“We need to listen to our elders. General Ishola Williams, as far back as 2020, gave us this warning that we are having too many generals and too few field troops. In the long run, it is the country that loses.”