Another soldier writes Buhari, says Generals sabotaging IPPIS for selfish gains

A military personnel with the Nigerian Navy has written an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari where he lamented the treatment being meted out to men of the lower ranks by the senior officers and generals.

The personnel, who identified himself simply as Leading Seaman Atona A. lamented that “most of the military generals are not happy with the recovery” of the President. “Because they are not happy with the prevailing change that is blowing, especially in the military”.

He also stated, in the letter made available to Ripples Nigeria, that the generals are not happy with the presidential directive for the “military to switch its personnel pay, to the Integrated Payroll and personnel information System IPPIS”, and that they have continued to use delay tactics to frustrate its implementation.

It would be recalled that a brave soldier under Operation Lafiya Dole had also recently written President Buhari lamenting how corruption in the Nigeria Army is killing troops deployed to fight Boko Haram insurgents in the North East.

In the letter to Buhari, the soldier had said, there are many cases of soldiers who got wounded at the battlefront, and left to fend for themselves, while their families are left in penury.

On his part, LS Atona said in his letter to the president that “It took me years to summon this courage and as a soldier I have to take all risks before writing this letter.

“I’m a military man to the core and a serving personnel of the Nigerian Navy to be precise. Not only that, I’m also a die-hard lover of you Mr President, because of your honesty, integrity, life style and of course leadership style. That’s why I named my new-born baby after you.

“Before I go into the main purpose of this letter, let me also use this opportunity to extend my greetings and personal gratitude to almighty God for your miraculous health recovery, after a long medical vacation, indeed this miracle comes as a result of prayers by all well-meaning Nigerians. But to tell you the truth, most of the military generals are not happy with your recovery. Because they are not happy with the prevailing change that is blowing, especially in the military. I prayed Almighty God continues to bless you and protect you against all harms.

“Mr President all is not well, in the Nigerian Armed Forces. Despites your good intentions and all efforts you are putting in place for the welfare of men, the corrupt generals are still using their ballistic shields to counter your good efforts.

“Mr President, soldiers are aware of all good efforts you are making for their welfares. But the generals are our problems. Sir the generals are not happy with your directive for military to switch its personnel pay, to Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System IPPIS. This directive is long overdue since early 2016, but they are just using silly excuses to keep on skipping until government forget about it. They say, “justice delayed, justice denied”. That is their plan. Sir remember, that this same IPPIS also suffered set back during former president Goodluck Jonathan and the generals used all they could to stop it. But the soldiers believed that, this time around it will not die under your watch Sir.

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“If Mr President could remember his first jumaat prayer at Niger barracks Abuja after his victory in 2015 election, soldiers were seen jubilating publicly shouting e-payment sir!

“Mr President, what soldiers want now is transparent payment system. It’s believed that, with this old system of payments, soldiers are not receiving what is due for them as salary and in most cases their due allowances are being denied. Sir this is no longer a hidden thing as it was testified during Former CDS, Alex Bade case. The truth is Alex bade is the only suspect for now, but this practice is still going on in the system, particularly in the Navy.

“In this old system of salary payment, navy prepared multiple salary vouchers with different figures, the ones that will be going to Federal government records and for public consumption carried correct figures, but the one going to the bank for personnel accounts the figures are slashed. It has also been confirmed that, ex-service chiefs and some retired admirals are enjoying from money deducted from personnel. Therefore full implementation of IPPIS is the only way to stop these criminalities sir.

“Mr President, even though all is not well in Nigerian military, it will be wrong for me to paint all the generals black, because there are exceptions. So far so good, the administration of Nigerian Air Force remains the best and the present Chief of Air staff, Air Chief Marshal Sadiq Abubakar is the best so far among the generals. He’s a good man and truly he is an agent of change, and welfare of his men remains his priority, may God continue to bless him. At a time the Air Force reduced the primary and secondary schools fees for its personnel’s children, that was when Navy increased its school fees. So far Nigerian Navy primary and secondary school remains the most expensive school in the Armed Forces. The way Navy personnel are removing their children from Navy schools to other schools is becoming alarming, because they cannot afford to bear the exorbitant fees. My question; is Navy remitting all these money gathered as school fees back to the Federal government account? If not, then some people have turned Navy (government) schools into private ventures, because all the teachers are either Navy personnel who are from education department, or civilian teachers who are under ministry of Defence. And the schools also are being funded and maintained by government, so why are Navy personnel paying these exorbitant fees?

“Mr President, your recent meeting with service chiefs gives soldiers hope that good things are about to unveil in the military. I learned that one of the things you keep on emphasising during the meeting was the welfare of the men and for that, I learned that you have approved the amendment of harmonised Armed Forces terms and conditions of service for both officers and men for good. I’m happy that, retirement benefits are going to be upgraded from the present bondage.

‘Sir, if that is achieved, your name will become immortalised in the hearts of all soldiers. Because when I see my seniors that retired in critical conditions, I always shed tears, because I know sooner or later I shall be in their shoes. Sir, presently most retirees can’t afford to own a house, after serving the country for more than thirty years, they ended up retiring in rented houses. That is why you see soldiers of nowadays going into illegalities just to secure their future by themselves, since the service cannot secure it for them. And because this compromise, that is why we have lapses in security all over the country. Now instead of a soldier to be strict on his duty, but due to the circumstance he found himself, he becomes bribe addicted and partaker of crimes that he’s supposed to fight or prevent.

“Sir, what one soldier in Maiduguri operation said, in his open letter to you recently was very correct and all what he said is still existing across all military operations in the country. Sir to serve as a guide, I request you demand the copy of 2010 HTACOS that was promulgated by former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike. That HTCOS really takes care of retirement benefits for more especially the men (other ranks). Officers were not happy about it and that’s why they amended it immediately after he left service.

“Mr President, there’s one demoralizing statement that is very common in the military particularly among the officers, more especially commanding officers that are entrusted with the entitlements of men under them as they used to say it without fear or pity that, soldier is just a slave for officers and therefore soldier is not entitled to allowance, it is a “privilege”. That means, the commanding officer only pay his men their allowances when he feels like and if he likes he eats it, no soldier can dare to ask him question after all they are slaves. That’s what is happening in the military formations sir and that is why they don’t want this IPPIS to come to play, because generally officers are feeding from their men’s sweats.

“Finally, I learned that Mr President is about to reshuffle his ministerial cabinet, I pray that reshuffling will affect defence too because we need a defence minister that is more vibrant, corruption free and must be an agent of change. Soldiers will not forget Alhaji Yayale Ahmed for his efforts and contributions towards sanitizing military, when he was a defence minister during late former president Musa Yar’adua regime. Even though Yayele didn’t last long on that position, his actions were seen clearly as he shunned corruption to nearly a standstill, until after he left, business as usual returned. This is the type of minister we want, not follow-follow or chop i chop minister.

“I know my letter may be not pleasant to the unrepentant vampires that are disguising in uniforms and I believe they will continue to witch-hunt me, just like the way they pursuit Late Rear Admiral Ikoli to his early grave. But that will not scare me, I have done what I m ought to do as a good citizen of Nigeria. This is just a beginning and I promise to write more letters, if this first letter is welcome by you sir”, he stated.

 

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