ACCORDING TO CDS MUSA, I RECEIVE N1,200 AS OPERATION ALLOWANCE, WHILE MY TROOPS GET N50,000 PER MONTH

Babatunji Wusu –

General Christopher Musa, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), has revealed that he gets N1,200 per day in operation allowance.

The CDS went on to say that all Nigerian soldiers, regardless of rank, receive the same amount as operation allowance.

In an interview with Channels TV on Tuesday, General Musa revealed the information regarding the welfare of the nation’s armed troops.

While requesting better working conditions for the armed forces, the CDS disclosed that some soldiers make less than N50,000 per month and that there might not be enough dormitories to accommodate all of the soldiers.

Thus, he implored the government to investigate the soldiers’ well-being in order to provide them with compensation that will motivate them to perform better.

He said, “If you look at the constitution, our primary responsibility is territorial integrity but if you look at the territorial integrity, it implies that charity begins at home. We can not be protecting territory and the home front is on fire and then sit back and watch.

“Over the past few years, on average the armed forces recruited over 15,000 personnel into the system, but we are not building new barracks. We know budget has captured some of it, we need to do more, we need to renovate the old ones because they have been there for ages.

“My dream is for every officer and soldier to have an accommodation that he can look up and say this is my own, this is my barracks.

“Because of the operations we are conducting, a lot of the officers and soldiers are out there in the field. If to say these operations are over and we to are to go back to the barracks, there wouldn’t be enough barracks for us.

“The issue of cash allowance where we feed, any time we are on operations, I as a General, I am being paid N1,200 per day with my soldiers. From the first general to the last soldier, it is the same amount, that is what we manage.

“My soldiers collect less than N50,000 as salary in a month. We all know the situation on the ground, my appeal is for them to have salary that is worthy for the work they are doing, we deserve to have that so that it can encourage them to want to do more.”