The Nigerian Army has raised alarm over the poor enlistment of South East youths into military service and called for a change of attitude to reverse the trend.
According to the Army, while Kaduna State has recorded over 3,000 applications in the ongoing 2025 recruitment exercise, Enugu State is still struggling with just a hundred.
While noting that the story was not different with other South East states, the leader of 2025 Army recruitment enlightenment team, Brigadier-General Chima Ekeator urged Enugu and Southeast youths to apply in their numbers in the ongoing recruitment to fill their quotas.
Brigadier-General Ekeator, who made the call during an Enlightenment town hall meeting with local government chairmen, traditional rulers, presidents-general of town unions, and thought leaders in Enugu over the weekend, said: “Our people are losing what rightly belongs to them.
‘’Each year, whenever a slot is being allocated to our people, we keep noticing that the number of applicants from our side is usually very poor.
“For example, Enugu State was given about 200 slots but the people who made it were never up to 100 due to poor application. This has also become a recurring decimal in other states in the South East.
“Today’s statistics on the number of applicants show that Kaduna has about 3,000 applicants, while Enugu is still battling with about a hundred; and by the time we will be through with screening, you will not have enough to recruit from the state.”
He refuted the allegation that people of Southeast origin were being killed in their numbers in the Army because they were the first to be sent to the battle fronts, adding that the region was also holding strategic positions in the Army currently.
“There are a lot of falsehoods out there, stating that the Igbo are being killed because they are the first to be sent to the battlefield. These things are not true. After all, we that are here have risen high in the Army and we are telling you that they are lies.
‘’Today in the Nigerian Army, our brother is one of the top commanders in charge of equipment. His name is Chibueze Ogbuabor,” he said.
