On the Reported Comment by the COAS — A Necessary Response

by Ojudu Babafemi

I encountered the statement below on this platform:

“If Nigerian youths refuse to join the army, we will make it mandatory for everybody from the age of 18 and above to join. The 10,000 we recruited last year are nowhere to be found.” — COAS

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As someone who served on the Senate Committee on Defence, I consider this matter far too serious to be dismissed with outrage alone or addressed with threats of compulsory conscription. Before we condemn young men who desert the military, we must first interrogate the reasons behind such a tragic and troubling reality.

1. Training and preparedness
   Are recruits receiving adequate, modern training for the complex and dangerous missions they are sent on? Are they properly kitted and equipped — or are they being asked to confront heavily armed criminals with obsolete weapons and incomplete gear?
2. Welfare and remuneration
   Are their salaries and allowances paid promptly and in full? And even when paid, are those wages sufficient to keep body and soul together in an economy crushed by inflation? How many of them can afford decent accommodation, nutritious food, or the basic responsibility of caring for parents, wives, and children?
3. Insurance and posthumous care
   Is their life properly insured? And if the worst happens, is there a transparent, humane, and efficient system to support their families — or are widows and orphans left abandoned to charity and sorrow?
4. Justice, fairness, and internal culture
   Beyond material conditions, what of the human environment? Are they treated with dignity and fairness by their superiors? Is there ethnic, regional, or religious discrimination in promotion, posting, or punishment? Are some sacrificed while others are protected because of “who they know” or “where they come from”?
5. Mental health and psychological support
   What of their mental and emotional well-being? Do they receive psychological support after witnessing death, carnage, and destruction? Are they given counselling, or are they simply expected to “be men” and carry invisible scars in silence?
6. Deployment and rotation
   Are soldiers regularly rotated away from the front lines for rest and recovery, or are the same exhausted, frightened young men sent again and again into the jaws of danger while others remain in comfort zones?
7. Confidence in purpose and leadership
   Finally, do they truly believe in the cause they are being asked to die for? Do they trust the leadership that gives the orders? When a soldier loses faith in leadership, in justice, or in the value of his own life, desertion becomes less a crime and more a desperate — and tragic — cry for help.

These are the questions that our military and political leadership must answer honestly and urgently. Until they do, blaming only the foot soldier is not just unfair — it is, quite frankly, cowardly.