The National Chairman of Nigeria Legion, Major General Abdulmalik Jibril (Retd), Thursday, lamented that despite the1988 act on welfare, the legion has not received budgetary allocations from the federal government since 1989.
Jubril, who spoke during the Nigerian legion’s humanitarian day ceremony held at the legion headquarters on Thursday in Abuja, said veterans who had served the nation require special treatment, particularly the disabled, sick, aged and needy.
To this end, he advocated more welfare support and continuous well-being of military veterans, adding that money realized annually from donations, rents and other sources are far-cry from what was required to fulfill its statutory functions nationwide.
“The Legion Humanitarian Day ceremony is one of the major events lined up by the Ministry of Defence towards the Year 2023-Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration. This is an annual event hosted by the Nigerian Legion to attend to the welfare needs of ex-servicemen, military widows and other dependents of our veterans.
“As we are all aware, the Nigerian Legion was established by the Act of Parliament No.18 of 1964. This piece of Legislation has been amended over the years and the current amendment in force is the Nigerian Legion Act 37 of 1988. The basic functions assigned by this Act to the Nigerian Legion centered mainly on the welfare of ex-servicemen, widows of veterans who paid the supreme sacrifices in active service as well as other dependents but from the archives, the last time annual budget was released to the Veteran Affairs Department in the Ministry of Defence was 1989.
“The money realized annually from donations, rents and other sources is a far-cry from what we require to fulfill our statutory functions nationwide. Retirees and military widows are increasing on a daily basis due to our current state of national insecurity,” he said.
In his address, the Minister of Defence Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi (Retd), who was represented at the event by Major General A.T. Jubril, assured of the Federal Government’s commitment to support and empower the ex-service men, women and their dependents.
