THE  ARMED FORCES AND OATH OF ALLEGIANCE

Okhai Akhigbe pays tribute to the Nigerian Armed Forces on Remembrance Day

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu launched the 2026 Nigerian Armed Forces Remembrance Day emblem on 2nd December 2025. The Abuja unveiling event was part of the build-up to the annual 15th January memorial to commemorate distinguished military service, personal sacrifice and the Nigerian Spirit. The ceremony showcases a military parade, gun salutes, accolades, and the laying of flowery wreaths at the cenotaph for military heroes in the Federal Capital Territory and state capitals. The President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, state governors, legislators, ministers, service chiefs, heads of establishments, diplomats, senior military officers, VIPs, military veterans, and members of the public will attend this sombre yet iconic spectacle which will be broadcast in real time.

The memorial ‘red poppy’ emblem has its origin in an old 1915 poem, “In Flanders Fields” written by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, in honour of his friend Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, killed during World War 1. The emotional poem describes thousands of graves at the military cemetery overgrown with blood-red poppies. This led to the red poppy becoming the most recognized memorial symbol for soldiers who died in active duty. It is estimated that over 50,000 African soldiers died during World War 1 and over 475,000 died during World War 2. A significant number of these casualties were Nigerian troops.

In 1921, the Royal Canadian Legion and the British Legion adopted the artificial poppy created by Madam Anna Guerin and established the first ‘Poppy Appeal to honour fallen soldiers and support veterans. Remembrance Day is traditionally celebrated amongst Commonwealth Nations on November 11th to commemorate the armistice and end of World War 1 on the 11th of November, 1918 at 11am. In Nigeria however, we celebrate Remembrance Day on the 15th of January.

The 15th of January is a watershed in Nigerian history. Barely seven years after attaining independence from Britain in 1960, the country was plunged into a bloody civil war that lasted for 30 months. Military troops that once trained together became enemies and killed each other on the battlefield. Civilians were conscripted to fight this war on both sides and lost their lives, limbs, and their sanity. On 15th January 1970, the civil war officially came to an end with the historic signing by General Olusegun Obasanjo and Colonel Philip Effiong. The restoration of peace could begin after the massive military and civilian casualties. Ironically, there is a generation of younger Nigerians that have very limited information on this national tragedy which still influences the sociopolitical landscape today. But Gen Zs aside, what does the Armed Forces Remembrance Day mean to Nigerians of every demographic? What does this sacrifice of life by soldiers mean? It is a question that applies to me as well, especially being a military veteran who has lost many friends, colleagues, and subordinates on the battlefield.

I remember, as a Captain serving at the Directorate of Military Intelligence in 2000, being assigned to coordinate the security of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day ceremony at Alausa, Lagos. That memorable moment at the cenotaph, standing on one side of the Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was decked in a dark blue French suit. To his left stood Brigadier General George Emdin, Commander 9 Brigade, Ikeja, and former Commanding Officer, Army Training Wing in my cadet days at the Defence Academy.

On January 15, 2026, Bola Ahmed Tinubu will stand at the cenotaph again, as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, to remember the heroes who paid the ultimate price. One of such recent heroes is Brig. Gen Musa Uba who was killed alongside some of his troops in November 2025. Another harsh reminder that the battle against the insurgency may be far from won. There will be more casualties, more soldiers will fall, and their comrades will fight on. Blood. Sweat. Tears. This is what distinguishes the soldier in society. We live to a certain code based on the Oath of Allegiance we took on entering military service. Courage is demanded in the face of danger. It is the warrior mindset.

Over the last 30 years, between peacekeeping, internal security, counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations the number of military casualties has grown exponentially. My mind travels back in time, to the early days when we started off in military training. Most of us were just teenagers looking for adventure. The Academy was a gruelling five years of tough military training, being pushed to the limit by senior cadets, while studying to qualify for a university undergraduate degree. To lead men in battle is an honour that must be earned, we were told. It was first cadets training cadets in endurance runs, obstacle crossing, map reading, toughness, and military tradition. Then came the drills. We burnt rubber on the parade ground from marching to instructions every day. Learning to react instinctively, to compensate the next man’s deficiency, working as a group with a common mission. Our instructors on the parade ground were the non-commissioned officers. Men who would salute us after we were commissioned but they owned the parade ground. They poked us with their staffs and rolled us on the gravel when we defaulted. The Regimental Sargent Majors – RSMs, were custodians of military tradition and they drilled us to perfection. Sergeants taught us how to fire weapons, to strip and clean them, and to treat them as a best friend. They needed us to be of the highest quality because we would lead men under gunfire. And where we couldn’t lead, where we faltered, we could be shot by our own.

When it came to field training, our instructors were the officers, proud graduates from the academy themselves. They were ruthless. We dug trenches till our palms bled. We cried in the cold and the rain on the highlands of Jos. We got lost during night navigation in Kachia. Some drowned in Port Harcourt. We marched 50 kilometres in full battle gear. We didn’t bath for two weeks. They stole our weapons when we fell asleep on guard duty then ‘puteed’ us till we could no longer stand. Take this training serious, they said to us over and over again, because this training may save your lives in the field. They pushed us to the limit because they understood that they were also training us for themselves. We would be their subordinates in the field when the bullets flew past. So, while we trained under the directives of then Colonel Emdin, learning to ambush the enemy and dig trenches in defence we got the heartbreaking news of one of the earliest casualties of the ECOMOG operations. It shook the entire cadet corps.  It was a member of the 36th Regular Course. His course mates nicknamed him Sergeant Doe. He was a lanky fellow, very good natured and always one to crack a joke. An indigene of Lagos state. A Guards battalion officer. This was 1990. What we didn’t realise at the time was that the wave of conflicts was just beginning. We would find ourselves applying the knowledge we attained in Liberia, Sierria Leone, and the Bakassi Peninsula. We would lose friends and troops in operations. And it wouldn’t stop there. We would pull back to our own country and have to modify traditional military doctrine to take on militants, terrorists, bandits, and insurgents.  

Since 1960, Nigeria has sent over 100,000 peacekeepers on various missions across Africa and beyond. In October 1999, the Obasanjo Administration confirmed that Nigeria deployed 15,000 troops to ECOMOG operations which lasted from 1990 – 2000. In that time at least 500 soldiers were killed in action (KIA), with several hundred wounded. Nigeria expended US $8+ billion in support of what became a peace enforcement mission that restored peace to Liberia and Sierra Leone. There are so many heroic episodes of personal sacrifice by our troops to risk injury or death to save comrades. The story of ECOMOG is unprecedented in peace keeping operations considering that this was a purely regional initiative and underscores the legacy of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Military personnel involved in conflict situations are susceptible to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), debilitating injuries, and death. Lack of public recognition and support can make veterans feel alone, unheard, and misunderstood, which worsens feelings of isolation that are common with PTSD. This is a major problem in the US military. According to US Veteran Affairs, in 2022, there was an average 17 suicides of US military personnel a day culminating in 6407 deaths in just one year. A valuable aspect of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day is to ensure that our military veterans are put in the spotlight where they can receive psychological, moral, and material support. The nature of geopolitics implies that we will always need the armed forces available to protect our national interest.

This is a tribute to all those men, and women, of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, that pledged the Oath of Allegiance: “that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria”. Even at the expense of their freedom, lives, limbs, and mental health. This is a tribute on behalf of those of us that made it home alive. In the 1915 poem, the fallen soldiers command the living to remember them so their sacrifice would not be in vain. We will not forget.

Captain Akhigbe served in the Nigerian Army Intelligence Corps. He is working on a documentary for the Armed Forces Remembrance Day. okhai1926@gmail.com