Three hundred and twenty soldiers comprising 262 from the Nigerian Army (NA), 44 from the Navy (NN) and 14 from the Air Force (NAF) would be retired from service next week, the Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre (NAFRC), Oshodi, said on Wednesday.
NAFRCโs Commandant, Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Ajibola Jekenu stated this during a press briefing ahead of the graduation of the personnel, who underwent a six-month course preparatory to their retirement.
He said the initiative was to enable the beneficiaries adjust and appropriately blend with the peculiarities of retirement as well as contribute actively to national economy as worthy civilians.
Jekenu, who noted that the retiring soldiers have been trained in various skills for self-reliance, said the centre was looking towards introducing managerial courses for other ranks.
He said the development was necessitated by the fact that most other ranks in the military were educated, adding that they have seen a lot of soldiers with doctorate degrees.
Aside plans to introduce managerial courses for soldiers, Jekenu said the centre was still on course with moves to be upgraded to a higher institution and to also commence trainings for officers.
He said: โA total of 320 personnel will be graduating, retiring on June 22 having undergone intensive skills acquisition trainings to help them earn meaningful livelihood after retirement.
โThe centre graduates two courses annually and it is on record that we have trained over 41, 000 ex-servicemen of the Nigerian Armed Forces since its inception.
โWhat we offer here are basics, fundamentals and so, it is not out of place for our trainees or ex-servicemen to improve themselves further outside. But that does not mean we cannot accommodate refresher courses for some of our ex-servicemen particularly in the area of security management.
โThe future for the center is quite bright. This is an institution that has been in place since the end of the Second World War. So, we have not been stagnant since 1945. At intervals, government has approved change in the mandate of the centre.
โFrom its primary goal to rehabilitate demobilized soldiers of the Second World War, it has expanded to resettlement of able-bodied men who are at the verge of retirement.
โWe have come to understand that the modern day trainee or ex-serviceman is not the same as the poorly educated soldier of the civil war era. Today, we have soldiers who have degrees as high as doctorate.
โThese soldiers are not keen on learning artisan skills but want to be at the top managerial levels or entrepreneurs. So, we are also taking all these into considerations and the higher commands are well aware of these factsโฆโ
On activities to lined up for the retirement, graduation of the trainees, he said: โThere will be a novelty football match between them and the staff of the centre; Jumaat and church services, dinner/cultural night and the passing out ceremony.
โDignitaries expected for the passing out ceremony include members of the National Assembly, the Minister for Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin and the service chiefs, other government functionaries and captains of industry.โ
