Buhari Okays Payment Of Retired Soldiers’ Debarred Allowance

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that all debarred allowance of retired military personnel be paid.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Dr Ibrahim Kana made this known in Abuja on Thursday.

The military retirees, under the aegis of Coalition of Concerned Veterans, had expressed their dissatisfaction through a nationwide protest on January 5 and threatened to disrupt the annual celebration of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day on January 15.

The action was suspended after the intervention of the Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi (retd.) but the association, in April, vowed to resume the protest due to the government’s failure to keep their side of the bargain.

He said, “the President has given approval for reform of the Ministry of Defence into our own Pentagon, in this case, there will be the deployment of senior military officers working alongside civilian staff.

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“We will not be directly involved in Operations but we will handle the policy aspect of the Ministry of Defence to ensure the best for our troops.

“The president has given approval for the establishment of the veteran’s services department in the ministry for retired soldiers.

“Recently, the President unanimously approved the debarment allowance for all veterans. For the veterans, I think better days are ahead”.

Kana also said the Ministry of Defense was undergoing a reform to take the shape of the Pentagon.

He added, “We are also reforming our health services to see to the well-being of personnel. Therefore, we are reforming our health services department to provide quality health service to our personnel.

“We are also reforming education, we are going to reform education in the command and secondary schools. Armed personnel have children and they have to go to school and that is our responsibility”.