Some soldiers in the Nigerian Army have sent a save-our-souls message to President Muhammdu Buhari over the Nigerian Army’s planned deduction of their salaries to pay for some “fraudulent Nigerian Army Welfare Housing Scheme.”
The soldiers – One sergeant, two Corporals, two Lance Corporals and one Private – in the letter obtained by SaharaReporters noted that the army is deducting between N15,000 and N49,000 from their little salaries monthly and that it is currently affecting their well-being.
The personnel said Non-Commissioned Officers and the Senior Non-Commissioned Officers are finding it difficult to feed their families and pay their children school fees “from our meager salaries.”
Hence, they want the deductions to be reconsidered by the army authorities.
The soldiers wrote, “On behalf of the entire Non-Commissioned Officers and the Senior Non-Commissioned Officers, we write to reject the proposed plan of the Nigerian Army to further increase their tempo in a way of continuous swindling and to put us and our families into persistent suffering of hunger and starvation.
“Putting into consideration the high rate of inflation in Nigeria market today, we the NCO and the SNCO are finding it difficult to feed our families and as well pay our children school fees from our meager salary. Yet, the Nigerian Army has devised a means of taking or collecting it back from us the Scarce Skill Allowance under the guise of a useless, fraudulent and so-called Nigerian Army Welfare Housing Scheme.
“It is pertinent to note that the army cannot exist or stand in the absence of the NCO and the SNCO, but the army can stand or exist and function effectively without the commissioned officers. This is to say that the SNCO and the NCO are the pillars of the Nigerian Army and without them the NA cannot exist and yet, they suffer the most.
“The NCO and the SNCO are not well paid and yet the army wants to deduct a whopping sum of N15,410, N16,703, N17,103, N21,516, N26,732, N30,000 and N49,986 on a monthly basis and according to the ranks respectively.
“After this deduction, they still want us to feed and also buy our military uniforms from the remaining change. The officers of the NA are happy seeing us, the NCO and the SNCO, suffering all the days of our life. They can never and will never come up with a good plan that will ever benefit the other ranks. Instead, they prefer to cheat without regard to our suffering.
“We are using this medium to call on the Federal Government, the House of Representatives, the Senate and all other stakeholders to come to our aid and stop the army under the leadership of Lt Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, from going ahead with the proposed fraudulent plan.”
