Will You Support The Military To Stops Admission Of Combatant Female Cadets ?

Will You Support The Military To Stops
Admission Of Combatant Female Cadets ?
In a major policy reversal, the Nigerian
military is set to end the admission of female
cadets into the combatant course of the
Nigerian Defence Academy, we just learnt.
A set of 20 females, nicknamed Jonathan
Queens, were first admitted into the course in
Nigeria’s premier military officer training
institution during the former President
Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2011.
It was learnt that the recommendation to end
the programme was made by the Armed
Forces Council which was inaugurated by
President Muhammadu Buhari last week.
Buhari had also last week ratified the National
Defence Policy 2017 (Revised); Harmonised
Terms and Conditions of Service Officers 2017.
Recommendation 19 of the Harmonised Terms
and Conditions of the Armed Forces of Nigeria
was sighted by one of our correspondents on
Sunday.
It read, “Phase out the training of female
regular combatant cadets.”
A serving general in the Nigerian Army told our
correspondent that the military took the
decision due to complaints from some
unnamed northern leaders.
The general, who pleaded anonymity because
he was not authorised to speak on the issue,
explained that there were various types of
commissions in the Armed Forces namely:
Regular Combatant Commission, Short Service
Combatant Commission, Direct Regular
Commission, Direct Short Service and Executive
Commission.
He said, “It is only the Regular Combatant
Commission that can give an officer the
opportunity to aspire to head any of the
services or rise to become the Chief of
Defence Staff, while the others have limited
career path. If the military is able to scrap this
programme, women will never be able to head
any of the arms of the Nigerian military.
The general said those pushing for the
scrapping of the programme had convinced
federal government that women were not
doing well in the programme.
He said, “When we started the training of
female cadets in 2011, we never thought it
would be successful. When the first set of
women cadets graduated from the academy
last year, women won three awards, including
the best award in the navy category.
“A female cadet, C. Lord-Mallam, won the Navy
Gold award which is the highest in the navy
category. The Army Silver award, which is the
second highest in the army, went to a female
cadet, K. O Dayo-Karim. The Air Force Silver
award was also won by a female cadet, O. S
Ijelu.
The general said, “I was informed that the
women were trained just like the men were
trained. They were not given any preferential
treatment. Two of these female cadets beat
their male counterparts to win placement at
the United States Military Academy in West
Point and they are doing well.
In 2010, the then President, Goodluck
Jonathan, had ordered the military to allow
females interested in becoming combatant
officers of the Nigerian armed forces to be
admitted into the NDA for the first time ever.
He had said, “Presently, we have female
armoured tank drivers, female Para-troopers,
jumpers, and so on. We want to have strong,
virile armed forces devoid of discrimination.”
What is your opinion on this ?