Armed Forces Remembrance: We’re struggling to survive – Fallen heroes’ widows

Widows of fallen heroes in Nigeria yesterday brooded over their living conditions, appealing to the federal and state governments to empower them.

They spoke against the backdrop of the 2025 Armed Forces Remembrance Day which, as usual, saw leaders at the national and sub-national level lay wreaths in Abuja and the 36 states of the federation.

They said they saw the Armed Forces Remembrance Day as a painful reminder of their husbands’ sacrifices for the country.

In Gombe State, widows of fallen heroes alleged abandonment by the federal and state governments.

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The coordinator of the association of fallen heroes’ widows in the state, Mrs. Solomi Titus Ishaya, said they lacked tangible support and access to vocational training that could help them sustain their families.

“We’ve been forgotten. We don’t receive vocational training like other women do. This day is not one of celebrations for us, but a painful reminder of the sacrifices our husbands made for this country. Still, we thank God because they died serving their nation,” she said.

According to her, paying their children’s school fees and affording daily meals are hard.

She appealed to governments and philanthropists for vocational trainings, tools and financial assistance.

“If we had a day set aside to focus solely on us, it would give us hope and strengthen our resolve to move forward,” she said.

The representative of the wives of fallen heroes in Lagos State, Mrs Oluwaseyi Iliya, while speaking during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day held at Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos Island, said: “Since we have been celebrating the Armed Forces Remembrance Day, we have not had any direct impact from the Lagos State Government.

“The only time they attempted was in 2024, and provision was made for only 10 widows, and ever since, we have not heard anything from them. Some of the widows were given foodstuffs, camp gas, grinding engines, and after then, we have just been hearing empty promises without accomplishment.

“Military widows are suffering, if the armed forces have abandoned us, we don’t expect the state government to abandon us as well.

“The military widows are those that really need to be honoured on a day like this because it is our husbands that paid the ultimate price for the nation.

“Most of us whose husbands died in the North-East because they were serving their fatherland, and now that they are no more, their families have been abandoned.

“None of us has been empowered since we have been celebrating this memorable day,” she said.

She, however, commended the Nigerian Army for the sponsorship provided to their children.

“The (Lagos) government may have been prospecting for us and tried to do something for us but none of it is getting to us.

“So, we plead with them to meet with us directly so that we can air our views through the proper channel,” Iliya said.

Mrs Helen Inacho whose husband, Staff Sergeant Andeew Inang, was killed on May 8, 2024 by Boko Haram insurgents in the North East if Nigeria, decried that life has not been the same for her.

Speaking to Daily Trust from the Millennium Park, Calabar, venue of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration, she said: “I have been depressed and deprived since my husband died last year. It was the Garrison commander who insisted that I and other widows must come out.

“The spirit lifting succor is that the army have promised to sponsor my two children to any level of education.”

An 80-year-old veteran, who spent 28 years in the army before retirement in 1992, Corporal Peter Effiong, said he was finding it difficult to meet his daily needs, including medications, owing to poor pensions.

Col Nasiru Salami (rtd), a 76-year-old Civil war veteran, yesterday said he would never allow his children to join the army.

Speaking on Channels Television’s ‘The Morning Brief’, Salami alleged poor treatment of military retirees by the authorities.

He said, “For now, I will never recommend any of my children to join the Nigerian Army. I am their father and they are seeing me now that my life is not to their expectation. They would want me to be higher than this, full of joy and other things that would make them happy. How would I now encourage them to join the army? I have two graduates now and I said to them: ‘never think of going to join the army. If you want to join, maybe the Navy or the Air Force. I’ve not been there, but I’ve been seeing them and I’ve been hearing about them because they are treated better.”

Salami said the Nigerian Legion in Lagos had over 24,000 members, complaining that the government had not paid him and other civil war survivors.

“We are asking for a war bonus, those of us who fought the war. I retired in December 1983 and they promised us heaven and earth that they would give us our war bonus, but up till now, we have not seen it.”