In an impassioned open letter to Nigerians, a soldier, Ojikutu Ridwanullahi, has stated that Nigerian soldiers deserve respect. He observed that their counterparts from across the world are accorded this respect even without doing as much as they do.
This comes in light of the constant heckling the Nigerian army gets mostly due to their treatment of civilians and many other scandals and indiscretions associated with the organization.
Ridwanullahi on his Facebook page wrote; “Dear civilians of Nigeria this post is meant to change ur thinking towards us. Looking at other countries, people give respect to their soldiers and these soldiers are not working as hard as we. Nigerian Soldiers are not ur enemies, the enemies are Boko Haram and Militant. We are facing dem for you while you run away from them.
“Take for instance, if there is an attack, you cannot go there but to run off the place to avoid death, but we with just one life like you will run to it and make it stop. We can die as well because we have blood in our veins.
“You have never clapped for our struggles but talk bad about us, you have never prayed for us but plan on how to injure us. Are you our enemy as well? Before i joined the Army, I thought Soldiers were bullies but wen I joined I got to know that since you cannot stop a moving car, but pushing or pulling it then you can’t stop soldiers from being rugged and chausing because that is the programming.
“Stop adding to Soldiers problem and give us our little respect as warriors. In those days, no one dares try a knight or soldiers, but now it is not the same.
“Our soldiers die everyday for the country. If you want to know more, come for the training and lets post you to Maiduguri or Chad or Cameroon then you will know. Gallant Soldiers please pass this on till all Nigerians will see it. Because whenever I remember all I and my regulars went through, water fell from my eyes. we are rugged, we are not cowards. “