A civil war veteran, Col Nasiru Salami (rtd), says he cannot allow his children to join the Nigerian Army, decrying what he termed the poor treatment of retirees by military authorities.

Col Salami made this statement on Wednesday on The Morning Brief, a Channels Television program, on the occasion of the 2025 Armed Forces’ Remembrance Day.

The 76-year-old civil war veteran, in a touching narration, chronicled his journey in the military, from his enlistment into the Nigerian Army in October 1967 to being sent straight to the battlefield for the Biafra war just after six weeks of training.

According to Salami, who is now the Secretary of the Nigerian Legion, Lagos Chapter, he was on the battlefield for 11 months during the civil war between 1967 and 1970.

The septuagenarian recounted how he painfully lost his right foot during the war, leading to its amputation. He said he went back to the war front to continue fighting.

He added that he would not encourage any of his children to join the Nigerian Army.

“For now, I will never recommend any of my children to join the Nigerian Army. I am their father, and they are seeing me now that my life is not to their expectation. They would want me to be higher than this, full of joy and other things that would make them happy. How would I now encourage them to join the army?”

“I have two graduates now, and I said to them: ‘Never you think of going to join the army. If you want to join, maybe the Navy or the Air Force. I’ve not been there, but I’ve seen them and I’ve been hearing about them because they are treated better,’” he said.

The war veteran said the Nigerian Legion in Lagos has over 24,000 members, adding that the Nigerian government was yet to pay him and other civil war survivors their war bonuses over 50 years after.

He also complained about his unpaid pension and other post-retirement benefits.

“We are asking for war bonuses, those of us who fought the war. I retired in December 1983, and they promised us heaven and earth that they would give us our war bonuses, but up till now, we have not seen it,” he said, appealing to the government to do the needful and improve the welfare of him and his colleagues.

I can’t allow my children join Nigerian Army – War veteran