OBMSGATEWAY

OBMSGATEWAY
Making Things Easy for Nigerian Diasporans back Home

Saturday, January 17, 2015

IBRAHIM BABANGIDA: WE WERE RECRUITED STRAIGHT FROM SCHOOL INTO THE ARMY

Seriously speaking, my generation came at a time when Nigeria was just trying to be on its feet. 
I went into the military service in 1962, Nigeria was just about two years old and it had the problems of a developing nation, what they need to go through and so on. 
So, we were witnesses to this development and I think, one should be able to quantify his contributions based on that period, what we had been doing. I think it was very fulfilling and rewarding. 
There was a drive to get students or people from this part of the country (North) so as to balance the officer corps of the armed forces.
So there was a deliberate drive to recruit officers from this part of the country (North) and I was fortunate that the minister for the army happened to be from this part of the country. 
So one of his first recruitment drives was to come to our school; he talked to us and gave reasons why we should join the military. 
Then, we saw some demonstration by General Yakubu Gowon; he was a captain at that time, a lot of us got excited. We applied and were recruited.
My original thought was to be a civil engineer but when this military thing came, I jettisoned that and went in for the military.

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