President Muhammadu Buhari, state governors and security chiefs yesterday paid tributes to Nigeria’s fallen heroes to mark the 2023 edition of the Nigerian Armed Forces Remembrance Day.
In Abuja, the president led senior government officials at the wreath-laying ceremony to mark the grand finale of the event.
The wreath-laying ceremony is his last as commander-in-chief of the nation’s armed forces as he is leaving office on May 29, 2023
He also inspected the Guards of Honour, accompanied by the Commander, Brigade of Guards, Maj-Gen. Muhammad Usman, after which he proceeded to the Cenotaph for the wreath-laying ceremony proper.
Prayers were offered for the departed and their families by the director, Nigerian Navy Religious Affairs, Commander Robert Oparaji; director of Islamic Affairs, Nigerian Airforce, Air Commodore Luqman Abiodun, and acting director, Chaplain Services, Nigerian Army, Lt. Col. Bilson Newton.
Other dignitaries who laid wreaths after the president include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Senate President Ahmed Lawan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola.
Others include the pair of the ministers of defence and the Federal Capital Territory, Maj-Gen. Bashir Magashi and Muhammed Bello, respectively; the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, and the service chiefs and well as the Inspector-General General of Police, Usman Baba; representatives of the Diplomatic Corps; and the pair of the Chairman of the Nigerian Legion and widow of a fallen soldier, Cynthia Ubah.
In Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his sustained efforts at defeating Boko Haram insurgents and bandits terrorising parts of the country.
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Wike gave the commendation yesterday at the Government House, Port Harcourt after the wreath laying ceremony to mark the 2023 Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration at the Isaac Boro Park.
The governor noted that after the civil war broke out a few years after independence, the armed forces were forced to quell the ensuing rebellion, which ended after three gruesome years of internecine warfare.
He stated that ever since then, there is hardly a year when members of the armed forces have not been assigned to one bloody combat mission or the other either within or outside the country.
The armed forces, Wike said, have also been at war with Boko Haram and other armed insurgents in the North-West and North-East of the country for over ten years, and the “unknown gunmen” in the South-East of the country.
The governor said, “I commend our President, General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, for his sustained efforts at defeating the Boko Haram insurgents and bandits terrorizing and destroying our communities in parts of our country. The restoration of peace to our troubled geo-political regions and the conduct of free and fair general elections are the best legacies you can live for our country.
“As leaders, our goal must be one Nigeria, one destiny, and the challenges of building a fairer, inclusive and just society are not beyond us. Therefore, I will not relent in my prayers to God to enable Mr President and other leaders of our country to succeed in our mission and commitments to our country.”
He asserted that a grateful country honours her armed forces’ extraordinary bravery and courage during their service and the sacrifice of their families for the common good.
According to Wike, many members of the armed forces have paid the maximum price or were maimed while fighting in numerous battles to achieve tactical victories over the enemies of the country and world peace.
The governor said: “We respect them for the dangerous professional path they willingly chose and love them as our children, relations, friends and members of our communities in the nation’s service.
“But they loved us more and even more significantly as fellow Nigerians by risking their lives, health, family and future on the battlefields to defend and protect us from harm’s way in return for almost nothing.
“We owe them a great deal as a nation. We owe them as states. We owe them as a people. Collectively, we owe them a debt we cannot repay, although the most we can do on this day is to extoll their virtues, commemorate their sacrifice and honour their heroic exploits so that they would never be forgotten for putting their lives on the line for us and others to live,” he said.
He maintained that the country must move beyond today’s courtesies, speeches and parades to consider the families, including the innocent women and children directly devastated and thrown into untold hardship by the death or incapacitation of their breadwinners at the battlefield.
This, Wike said, calls for prioritising the welfare and well-being of the armed forces in and out of service and their families with a concrete social security package, including prompt payment of terminal benefits and some form of economic security for the widows and their under-aged children.
The governor recommended that those suffering from various health challenges, including post-traumatic stress disorders, should have the best healthcare and attention from the public purse.
He said, “As a state government, we have, over the years, provided financial support to our veterans through the State Office of the Nigerian Legion. We have since redeemed the N50 million pledge we made during the remembrance emblem appeal fund launch in December 2022.
Wike said: “Today, I wish to donate the sum of N100 million on behalf of the state government for the economic empowerment of the veteran servicemen from Rivers State.”
The governor appealed to well-meaning public and private individuals and organisations to contribute to improving the social and economic well-being of the legionnaires and the wives and children of the fallen ex-servicemen.
Rivers State chairman of Nigerian Legion, ACG Justice O. Chichi, commended Governor Wike for the extraordinary kindness which the Rivers State government has always shown towards the welfare and support of veterans and the families of fallen heroes.
He said: “My colleagues, widows and dependents of our fallen heroes, particularly the beneficiaries of your scholarship, have asked me to raise my voice and tell you a very big thank you for the leader in you. We will forever be grateful to Your Excellency.”
On his part, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje said the Armed Forces Remembrance Day is an important occasion meant to remember the enormous contribution of the fallen heroes who died in the service of the nation.
According to him, the event is a tradition that has taken place every year to acknowledge the sacrifice made by our fallen heroes towards ensuring the unity and the defence of our country.
Ganduje, represented by his deputy and APC governorship candidate, Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, said this yesterday shortly after the parade and wreath laying ceremony in commemoration of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day held at the Cenotaph in Kano.
He added, “We are here to show our concern and relate with the families of the legionnaires. We will continue to encourage and support both serving and retired members of the Nigerian Armed Forces in their effort to keep and secure the territorial integrity of our country.”
Others who laid the wreaths include heads of security formations in the state and senior government officials
Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom state yesterday commended the Nigerian Army’s sacrifice to keep Nigeria one, but regretted that the unity in diversity that sustained the existing peace was under threat by insecurity and other political upheavals as the country inches closer to another round of general elections.
Speaking in Uyo, the state capital yesterday as part of a activities marking the end of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration, Emmanuel, who extolled the virtues of some fallen heroes that paid the supreme price for the country, urged the electorate to pick patriotic leaders in the forthcoming polls beginning from February 25.
He enumerated his administration’s contributions to boost the morale of the Armed Forces, especially in the areas of logistics and development of a military infrastructure in the state.
He said, “Here in our state, we have, as a mark of appreciation for the huge sacrifices our gallant men and officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces have made in ensuring we enjoy peace and security in our state and also recognizing the sacrifices they have equally made in various theatres of operation across the nation and internationally, we have remodeled, and constructed 168 blocks of flat to the Nigerian Army Battalion at Ibagwa, Abak Local Government Area, complete with water reticulation. We have also helped in the construction of internal roads and residential blocks of flats at the 2nd Brigade of the Nigerian Army Headquarters in Mbiokporo, Nsit Ibom LGA.
“We also made a donation of gun boats for the Marine Response Unit, all of which led to our state being awarded Nigeria’s Best Security and Safety State during the last African Security Summit in Banjul, The Gambia last November.
“I am eternally grateful for the cooperation we have received from the Nigerian Security Services in the course of my administration, as we begin the process of handing over the baton of leadership to my successor, whom I am convinced will carry on this tradition of gratitude we have shown for the service these heroic patriots have given to our state and the nation.
“As we honour these great patriots, let us be reminded that the factors that led to the various wars they participated in, or the internal operations to secure our peace for which they paid with their lives are still with us. All across the nation, some rhetoric that enlarges the chasm of separation and weakens the cords of our national unity are still being propagated and amplified through various echo- chambers.
“Our diversity which should form a rainbow of strength is being exploited for narrow political advantage, while zero-sum game tactics are still being employed and deployed all over the nation.
“A day such as this should help us lower the temperature of incendiary and unhelpful rhetoric. We should fan the embers of our unity deeper and extend the frontiers of love and brotherhood further, so the sacrifices of these gallant officers and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces we have come here today to honor, will not be in vain.
“As we get ready to elect our new set of leaders, I urge our political class to understand that we need the country to be one indissoluble entity, in order for our aspirations for leadership to be actualized. We must not threaten the unity of this nation for the narrow desire to be in power. If these gallant men and women paid the ultimate price for us to remain in peace and harmony, we must also pay them a corresponding price of appreciation and gratitude by ensuring that the cords of our unity, justice, equality, fairness and love remain our abiding articles of faith.”
The inspector-general of police, IGP Usman Baba, joined the President Muhammadu Buhari, the chief of defence staff, General Lucky Irabor, and other service chiefs in laying wreaths to mark the 2023 Armed Forces Remembrance Day and the need to maintain peace across the country.
Force PRO, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi said, “The inspector-general of police also commiserated with families and loved ones of officers and men of the armed forces, the Police force and other paramilitary agencies, who have paid the supreme price in the course of their service to the nation.”
The Armed Forces Remembrance Day, marked nationally at the National Arcade, Abuja, and replicated at various locations in each state of the federation, is in remembrance of the sacrifices of officers and men of the Armed Forces in their bid to ensure the unity, peace and progress of the country.
Other dignitaries present at the ceremony included the vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo; the Senate President Ahmad Lawan, the speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila; the chief justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, members of the federal executive council, the diplomatic corps and members of the force management team.
Former Chief of Army Staff Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai saluted the courage and sacrifices of members of the Armed Forces towards restoring peace across the nation.
Buratai, in a good will message to service personnel on the occasion of Armed Forces Remembrance Day 2023, said their sacrifices has made parts of the North East, particularly the Damaturu-Biu Road, safer than ever before.
He said, “I am proud of the Nigerian Military. The best way to truly serve one’s nation. Today, 15th January, 2023, we remember our gallant fallen heroes who paid the supreme sacrifice. May their gentle souls rest in peace.”
He urged members of the Armed Forces to keep the flag flying.
He said democracy has come to stay in Nigeria.
“The Nigerian Army remains the Pride of the Nation. I am proud being a member of the family and one of the best Armies in Africa.
“Back home to the warm welcome by the courageous Nigerian Army Troops of Sector 2 Operation Hadin Kai. Passing through the Damaturu – Buratai – Biu Road is now safer than ever before, kudos to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen F. Yahaya, the Theatre Commander, the Sector Commanders and all the troops of Operation Hadin Kai for their continued gallantry and consolidating on the peace attained in the North East,” he said.
