Folalumi Alaran in Abuja
A member of the National Assembly, Senator Ali Ndume, has hailed President Bola Tinubu for making good his pledge to increase the salary of Armed Forces personnel.
The former Senate Leader thumbed up the president in a release issued at the weekend.
Reacting to the increase in the salary of both officers and men of the three services which took effect from September 2026, the ranking senator praised Tinubu for walking his talks and urged him to continue to do everything necessary to boost the morale of personnel of the Nigerian military.
He however tasked military personnel to redouble their efforts in combating insurgency, kidnapping and banditry.
The former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army maintained that in the last three years, the present government has shown commitment to curbing insecurity by taking proactive initiatives in terms of financing to procure adequate arms and ammunition and doing everything necessary to boost the morale of the Armed Forces personnel.
His words: “Making a pronouncement is one thing, redeeming your pledge is a different ball game entirely.
“President Tinubu has shown times without number that he keeps to his words. It is heartwarming to note that the salary increment he promised the Nigerian Army has been redeemed.
“I want to urge our officers to redouble their efforts to curtail insecurity since the present administration is doing everything to boost their morale. They should do more now that they also have more troops on the ground with the recent recruitment.
“The activation of the Army Aviation would also go a long way in complementing the efforts of the Air Force now that we also have attack helicopters in the six geo-political zones.”
Ndume reiterated his appeal for better, coordinated synergy between the infantry and the Air Force in the war against insurgency and banditry.
The Presidency had last month issued an official statement with a commitment to commence implementation of new salary package for certain categories of Armed Forces personnel.
According to a statement attributed to presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga,
officers above the rank of colonel, including brigadier generals, major generals, lieutenant generals and generals, would receive a 30 percent salary increase.
He also added that personnel from lieutenant colonel down to warrant officer would get a 50 per cent increase, while those from private to staff sergeant would receive an 80 per cent increase.
The presidential aide, who said the new package would raise the annual salary bill for armed forces personnel from N660 billion to N924 billion, declared that over 250,000 personnel of the Nigerian Armed Forces would be beneficiaries..