President Goodluck Jonathan is “personally angry” that lots of Nigerians do not value the sacrifices of the Nigerian military in securing the country and losing their lives in the process.
Speaking on Saturday night at the inaugural presidential dinner for wives and relatives of military men who died on the battlefield with Boko Haram, Jonathan vowed that the government would take good care of families of fallen heroes, particularly by adopting the Victims Support Fund as a policy for the military.
“We appreciate the services of your husbands, your fathers, within the armed forces and other security agencies because we sleep while they are in fears and while protecting the nation some of them paid the supreme sacrifice,” he said.
“That is why I personally get angry when some public utterances that are not expected are made of them. All nations respect their military, respect their intelligent services. Because without these people we wouldn’t have been here. Without these people there wouldn’t have been any Nigeria.”
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He observed that Nigeria’s territorial integrity is still intact today because of the sacrifices of the military, and therefore urged Nigerians to show gratitude and appreciation to security agents.
“We will adopt your programme as federal government policy so that every year, we will know what the government can do to take care of the welfare of the wives and children of our fallen heroes.,” he said.
“Government would continue to support the families left behind by the fallen heroes to ensure that what they died for does not not go in vain. I assure you that government will continue to support you. We are here to reinforce our total commitment to you so that we can be held responsible if we fail to do what we are supposed to do.”
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Earlier, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Barde, had observer that the government owed the safety of the nation to the members of the armed forces.
Christiana Yakubu, wife of late H. Yakubu, a brigadier-general, thanked the president for the reception, saying: “We are aware of your commitment to protecting the youth and the future generation of the country, and we shall give you our support.”
