There is a deep sadness amongst the nation's retired soldiers many of whom are owed their gratuities and a back log of pensions although the present administration has made concerted efforts to pay them their allowances.
But their present sadness is that after having fought for Nigeria with many of them suffering bullet and other wounds and losing their colleagues to death on the war front they have been treated shabbily while they watched on TV the dollar and naira rain given to the Super Eagles which they feel is unfair to them.
One of these retired soldiers, Staff Sergeant Jim Yawa (rtd) spoke thus: "We were conscripted into the army at 19. We fought the civil war, did same in Congo, Burma and Yugoslavia before we left the service...But some little boys who were born in 1991, 1992 and the oldest one was born in 1980 were rewarded with National Awards, each of them 5 million naira, plots of land and other benefits...for just participating in 21 day event in South Africa...they slept in good hotels and paid for sleeping and playing foot ball...but we worked for 35 years, risk our lives and today we cannot even get our monthly pension of less than 20, 000 Naira is this not injustice?
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