Appeal By The Nigerian Army, Skepticism By Igbo Youths To Enlist In The Army And Other Matters.
Tuesday (Nkwo)22-04-2025.
On Monday (Nkwo), the 14th of April, 2025, it was reported in Punch Newspaper that the Nigerian Army expressed concern over low response by Youths of South-East Region to 2025 Army recruitment exercise.
Such a development could, indeed, be very significant when juxtaposed with the rising insecurity in Nigeria. Apart from the dangers constituted by Boko Haram , and the Islamic State’s West Africa Province, ISWAP, in the North-East region, Fulani terrorists, and bandits in the North-West, a new terrorist gang, Mahmud, has, reportedly, just sprung up in the North-Central, terrorising Nigerians in Niger, Kwara, Plateau and Benue States. From reports, life has become subjected to the most excruciating state of insecurity in those places.
From the North-Central, it is not unlikely that once the States that have boundaries with Southern States are overrun, it would be an uninhibited onward march, as had been predicted by the late Premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, to the Atlantic Ocean.
The present security challenges from Fulani terrorists and bandits across Nigeria actually have kept Security Agencies in Nigeria on the edge. They appear to have suffered a lot of losses and fatigue as a result of incessant attacks and ambushes by the terrorists. There is, therefore, justification for recruitments into the various Security Agencies, to replace, replenish and reinvigorate their depleted ranks.
By introspection, the Igbo were prominent among Youths of other tribes that enlisted into the Nigerian Army, both during the Colonial and First Republican eras. As a matter of fact, the Officers’ Cadre of the Nigerian Army at those times were dominated by the Igbo. It is on record that the first Nigerian University Graduate to enlist in Nigerian Army was an Igbo, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, with a Master’s Degree in History from Oxford University. So, the Igbo had enthusiasm in enlisting into the Nigerian Army.
For that enthusiasm to have gradually but systematically waned and declined over the years, something must have been seriously fishy. South-East Youths have never been known for either weakness or cowardice. Offspring of Political Agitators who relentlessly courageously fought the British Colonial Administration for Nigeria’s Political Independence can not be quantified as either weaklings or lily-livered.
However, the fact of the matter is that the Igbo, no matter the age or social status, place premium on life and security. They are a classical example of a People that believe that once there is life, their future would be bright, not minding odds they may be confronted with. Therefore, wherever their life or security is not guaranteed or is perpetually threatened, they try as much as possible to avoid such a place because of their belief in credible alternative.
Many scary speculations have overtime been heard about how Security Personnel of Igbo extraction have been discriminated against and unduly posted to areas where their lives have been exposed to danger in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents and Fulani terrorists. The rumour has been that Igbo Youths in different Nigerian Security Agencies have been used as mere Guinea Pigs in the war against Insurgency and Terrorism. The rumour further holds it that a very high proportion of Igbo Youths who had enlisted in the Nigerian Security Agencies and were deliberately selected and posted to where the battles were considered fierce, like King David in the Bible had reportedly instructed his Commander, Joab, to post the husband of Bathsheba whom he had committed adultery with, Uriah, to where the battle was fiercest, so that he would die, never returned alive.
Another source of rumour holds that former Insurgents of Boko Haram who were, truly of falsely, projected as having been deradicalized and recruited into the different Security Agencies, have often directed their bullets at Security Personnel of Igbo extraction during field operations.
It is only a tree that will be told it is about being cut down that will continue standing without any attempt to run for its dear life. No human-being, particularly the Igbo, will hear that an exercise involving him will be the shortest route to his death will like to be part of such insidious exercise.
Even though the Nigerian Government has not officially declared that the country has been in a state of war for over ten years, Nigerians know that the number of Citizens being slaughtered on daily basis by the Insurgents and Fulani terrorists far outnumber the number of deaths recorded even in a conventional war. The carnage has been outrageous and could outweigh the number of casualties being recorded in Russia/Ukraine war.
During states of war, Governments could enact emergency laws to empower them embark on conscription of their unwilling youthful citizens into the Army. Let it be hoped that the situation in Nigeria is not getting to such a dangerous situation.
Since the Nigerian Army is worried that its recruitment from the South-East has not been encouraging, in fact, nothing to write home about, it could allay the fears of the Youths of the Region by publishing her record of recruitment of South-East Youths in the past ten years, and emphatically show how many of them are alive, wounded or dead, and where the ones alive are currently serving. If the Army could do just this, it would go a very long way dispelling all the rumours, a good number of which could have been unfounded.
On a conclusive note, the North, especially the Fulani, should be sincere to themselves in this matter of Insecurity. If the essence of fanning terrorism in the North is to displace Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral homes, it would take many years before normalcy could be returned. It could even become worse and chaotic if the Indigenous tribes in the North are compelled by their present predicament to adhere to the injunctions already given to them by some of their Leaders, like General T. Y. Danjuma, Brigadier-General David Mark, and others, to defend themselves. The Fulani should allow Nigeria live harmoniously.
Equity Global Reporters Ltd.
