The Defence Headquarters has directed all Senior officers with “seniority on commission “above Nigerian Defence Academy Regular Course 39 to proceed on voluntary retirement.
This development comes on the heels of the appointment of the new service chiefs by President Bola Tinubu.
The notice of resignation was made known in a statement from the Defence Headquarters signed on Monday by Maj-Gen. Y. Yayaha for the Chief of Defence Staff.
“I am directed to respectfully request services to direct all officers with seniority on commission above that of Nigerian Defence Academy(NDA) regular course 39 to submit their applications for voluntary retirement from service with immediate effect,” the statement reads in part:
“I am to add that affected officers are to submit their applications to their respective service headquarters no later than on Monday, July 3, 2023.”
According to military tradition, senior officers are unlikely to take orders from their juniors, thus the new appointments necessitate the compulsory retirement of about 100 top officers, including Generals, Brigadiers-General, Air Vice Marshals, and Admirals in the Nigerian Army, Navy, and Air Force from the Force.
The affected senior officers who are expected to file in their voluntary retirement are officers above the NDA regular course 39, however, the new Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Christopher Musa is a member of 38 regular courses, the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Taoreed Lagbaja, the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear admiral, Emmanuel Ogalla, and the Chief of Air Staff, and Air Vice Marshal, Hassan Abubakar are members of 39 regular course.