The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, has revealed that he and other soldiers are paid N1,200 per day on operations.
Speaking on the welfare of soldiers in an interview on Channels TV on Tuesday, CDS said that all military personnel received the same operation allowance, regardless of ranks.
He said that over the past few years, the army had recruited an average of 15,000 personnel, but that there has not been a corresponding increase in the number of barracks.
He also called for improved salaries for soldiers, saying that they deserve to be paid more for the work they do.
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He said, “If you look at the constitution, our primary responsibility is territorial integrity but if you look at the territorial integrity, it implies that charity begins at home. We can not be protecting territory and the home front is on fire and then sit back and watch.
“Over the past few years, on average the armed forces recruited over 15,000 personnel into the system, but we are not building new barracks. We know budget has captured some of it, we need to do more, we need to renovate the old ones because they have been there for ages.
“My dream is for every officer and soldier to have an accommodation that he can look up and say this is my own, this is my barracks.
“Because of the operations we are conducting, a lot of the officers and soldiers are out there in the field. If to say these operations are over and we to are to go back to the barracks, there wouldn’t be enough barracks for us.
“The issue of cash allowance where we feed, any time we are on operations, I as a General, I am being paid N1,200 per day with my soldiers. From the first general to the last soldier, it is the same amount, that is what we manage.
“My soldiers collect less than N50,000 as salary in a month. We all know the situation on the ground, my appeal is for them to have salary that is worthy for the work they are doing, we deserve to have that so that it can encourage them to want to do more.”
