I grew up as a young boy being attracted to military movies and particularly liked Platoon, We were soldiers and Act of Valor. Those movies showed to me the sacrifice that service men make for their countries and I found that a honorable thing to do.
I told my family and friends about my wish to become a soldier but I was discouraged and told to instead go in as a professional so that I wouldn’t be deployed to combat. It sounded silly to me to join the military and not face combat, I’d rather just do a civilian job in that case.
Before I thought of becoming a soldier, I had gone through several career options. I gave up surgery because I didn’t think I had the patience to read all that amount of text, gave up electrical and electronics engineering because I fell in love with computers, that’s just by the way.
I proceeded to study computer engineering at a polytechnic for two years, which did not provide any useful knowledge as the things I was taught didn’t make me employable. I had to on the side, study web development and intern while in school. I got another internship job immediately I left school. A few months after I started my internship, I decided to apply to the military defense academy. The process was quite simple, although I ended up paying twice because of poor implementation of the payment process on the website. I then had to wait to chose a test center and date.
During the wait, I decided to look through online forums on information about the defense academy. To my surprise, most of the information I saw pointed to the fact that you needed to know a senior military officer to get into the defense academy, not because it was the official process, but because you had people who wanted their “people” to be in the military, we also had the quota system. This sounded funny as the military was an all volunteer force and didn’t pay so well, so I couldn’t figure out why such a thing would be politicized. Also, joining the military at that time kind of meant that upon graduation, I might be deployed to combat insurgency. It didn’t sound well that I needed some sort of connection to commit suicide. I therefore lost interest in the process and sought to continue my civilian life.
I continued working as a software developer and earned a lot more than I would have if I was in the military but still had an eye for service. I researched the benefits of joining other nations military, saw things like the G.I Bill for the U.S military. Even if we had such here, I probably wouldn’t bother using it as I would have to sit in a classroom to get sub par quality education.
My suggestion is that the military scraps the quota system and allow people be selected based on their potential to become fine commissioned or non commissioned officers. Benefits like the G.I Bill even though it will limit soldiers to the educational system within the country, will make it easier for soldiers to transition to civilian life should they leave the force. The military should also make able use of its workforce by reducing the contracting of things as little as the website; I am quite sure the military has people who can produce something much more better than currently exists. Adequate PR is also needed so that people are more willing to volunteer, wayward soldiers should also be disciplined so that people see the military as a more disciplined outfit than it currently is.
In conclusion, I personally do not see any benefits joining the Nigerian military. I still however highly respect those who have decided to join and day to day continue to risk their lives to protect the country. Thank you for your service, men and women of the Nigerian military.