As the Nigerian military prepares to celebrate the 40th edition of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day in honour of fallen heroes next January, the military Widows Association (MWA), has decried their treatments by the military authorities as non-essentials within the military community.
MWA an umbrella name for all wives of late servicemen stated over the weekend that the authorities appeared insensitive to their plights and those of their children.
In a conference, tagged ‘Unity Conference’ held at the Dike Park in the Mogadishu Cantonment Abuja Saturday, the military widows said that a situation whereby the families of deceased service personnel were thrown out of the barracks without adequate arrangements to cater to their immediate needs would no longer be acceptable.
Addressing a large crowd of widows, the new association president, Mrs. Veronica Aloko, wife of former Commandant of the National War College, now National Defence College, late Rear Admiral SO Aloko said that the military widows, especially those whose husbands died fighting to keep the nation together, should not be made homeless nor be allowed to experience dire, frustrating conditions at the demise of their spouses, adding that in her tenure as MWA president she would work assiduously to ensure that the desperate conditions of the wives and children of deceased personnel were not taken lightly.
She thereafter urged her members, some of whom were wearing tearstained faces, to cheer up as the Buhari administration would by no means forsake them.
She said, “The government and the military authorities cannot continue to seem unaware of our feelings and treat the difficult conditions of hundreds of military widows with insufficient concern. If any person or group of persons should rise up and demean the sacrifices that our husbands made to the unity of this nation by subjecting the families they left behind to inhuman treatments then that person or persons should think again because the military widows will no longer live as nonentities in this country looking at the far-reaching sacrifices of our husbands”.
Mrs. Aloko who is barely one month in office said that the era of divisions within the widows association was over pointing out that the last leadership of the association did next to nothing to unify the widows so as to enable them speak in one voice. She said that anyone among them who would try to divide the association would be immediately shown the gates as divisive tendencies within the group would no longer be tolerated.
“We have come under this one umbrella so there should be no more division among us. If anyone of us is going to cause confusion in this association, the door is there for her as there is no other platform upon which the wives of ex-servicemen can be heard. Right now what we need is not leadership squabble, but this kind of forum to constantly let the authorities know that we are there and they should not forget us and, I will go to great lengths to ensure that the plights of the military widows are not overlooked,” she said.
Mrs. Aloko said that her association would stop at nothing to press their demands even if it meant going to see the Commander-in-Chief, adding that the days when the military widows were swept aside as nonessentials in the government scheme of things was over. She said that insofar as her association would not constitute itself into an institutional opponent to the government or the military authorities, the military widows would no longer be relegated as if the sacrifices made by their spouses to keep the nation together was nothing.
“If we have to go to Mr. President to get what we want we will not hesitate to do that. Therefore I urge you all to wipe your tears and stop weeping because the present administration in the country is on a mission critical path to correct all imbalances and address this kind of imperatives of governance and we must be emotionally stable to assist the administration do that. Where do you turn to in a situation where your husband dies helping to keep the nation together leaving you and your children with little or nothing and they throw you out of the barracks in a hurry? You have nowhere to go. I think before the authorities can effectively and righteously do that they should make alternative accommodation ready”.
Several widows spoke of how they were evicted from their quarters shortly after their husbands died making them and their children virtual wanderers. “Paying our late husbands’ benefits is not enough. What can a woman who was used to depending on her husband for shelter do after he is gone. She can hardly do anything. Military authorities should endeavour to always provide us with alternative accommodations,” they said generally.
It should be remembered that the widows association had weathered so many internal conflicts resulting in the use of different association names until the Ministry of Defence, the supervising ministry of the Nigerian military force inaugurated the Military Widows Association last year as the only umbrella for all widows of the deceased personnel of the armed forces in the country. The name has since been registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission.
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