President Goodluck Jonathan has
expressed his displeasure over the fact that several Nigerians do not value the
sacrifices of the Nigerian military in securing the country and are losing
their (soldiers) lives in the process. According to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN),
Jonathan who spoke at the weekend, during the inaugural presidential dinner for
wives and relatives of military men who have died on the battlefield against
Boko Haram, vowed that the government would take good care of families of
fallen heroes, particularly by adopting the Victims Support Fund as a policy
for the military. “We appreciate the services of your husbands, your fathers,
in the armed forces and other security agencies because we sleep, while they
are in battle, and while protecting the nation, some of them paid the supreme
sacrifice. That is why I personally get angry when some public utterances that
are not expected are made of them. All nations respect their military, respect
their intelligence services. Because without these people, we wouldn’t have
been here. Without these people, there wouldn’t have been any Nigeria,”
Jonathan said. He observed that Nigeria’s territorial integrity was still
intact because of the sacrifices of the military and therefore urged Nigerians
to show gratitude and appreciation to security agents. “We will adopt your
programme as federal government policy so that every year, we will know what
the government can do to take care of the welfare of the wives and children of
our fallen heroes,” he said. “Government will continue to support the families
left behind by the fallen heroes to ensure that what they died for does not go
in vain. I assure you that government will continue to support you. We are here
to restate our total commitment to you, so that we can be held responsible if
we fail to do what we are supposed to do.” Earlier, the Chief of Defence Staff,
Air Chief Marshal Alex Barde, observed that the government owed the safety of
the nation to the members of the armed forces.
ThisDay (online)
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