The Leadership Center for Civil and Post Trauma Rehabilitation has expressed dismay over list of promotion of members of the Nigerian Army released yesterday, Friday, November 28, 2025, describing it as “uncomplimentary”.

The rights group in a statement issued on Friday evening and signed by Center Secretary, Dr. Manzo Abubakar, appealed to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, “for Presidential prerogative to address the promotion error in the Army.” This, according to the rights group, is necessary in order not to demoralise soldiers, especially senior officers deserving of promotion.

The statement reads in part: “As at today Nigeria is apparently at war with many fronts almost at the same time with little or no welfare to sufficiently boost morale of officers and its men to frontally confront the task before them.

“In the face of obvious challenges, the only instrument handy to keep these gallant men focused towards defending the territorial integrity of the Nigerian State and by extension maintaining internal security outside its core mandate is this carrot approach which promotion offers to appreciate their inestimable sacrifices which in some cases often come with dire consequences of supreme sacrifice.

“For the size of the Army, promoting only 27 Brigadier Generals to their next rank of Major General out of available space of about 78 gap created by the recent retirement that followed the appointment of the new COAS would not only cause disaffection & resentments amongst those whom genuinely merit this elevation but not considered, it may also rob the system of the vibrancy which could be caused due to innate feelings of stagnation and consequential disgruntlement.

“Recently as may be recalled, a crop of very Senior and intermediary Officers were arrested within the Military for Unprofessional conduct in the language of the immediate past Chief of Defense Staff, Gen. Musa Christopher, and the apprehended suspects mentioned stagnated promotion as top of their grievances.

“And unless someone is constituting an undertaker working from within to jeopardize renewed hope efforts of Mr President towards strengthening the Army for effective performance, this promotion opportunity presented first after the unprofessional conduct saga would have afforded the authorities as listening leadership to address the backlog of pending promotion especially for those that had the misfortune of missing out of the previous exercise in view of the gap created as a result of recent retirement following the appointment of the new Chief of Army Staff.

“The Navy and Air force that are far less in size compared to the Army did incredibly well filling up available spaces for the senior officers and so what would have been the justification for More Senior Officers of equivalent ranks in the Navy and Air Force being promoted to their next ranks when in terms of size and combat involvement as at today, the Army are more on the battle field?

“At this critical moment of multiple crises across the country for which Mr President has ordered to increase the strength of the Army, careless promotion error such as witnessed yesterday could turn out counter effective to discourage vibrant young men from seeking Presidential commission, believing that they may be cut short from attaining the pinnacle of their career due to careless promotion errors we are now witnessing.

“It is even more imperative that affairs of members of the armed forces must not be treated with levity at a struggling time like this when the United States had designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern and rather than creating ill feelings, the armed forces of the country should be made darlings of the nation by providing them with state of the art equipment and a robust welfare packages for enhanced combat readiness and battle effectiveness.

“As a Civil Society Group concerned with intricacies of leadership at all fronts, we hasten to point out the administrative error noticeable in the underlining views raised above and therefore use this medium to appeal for Presidential Prerogative of the Commander-in-Chief to correct this promotion anomaly in the interest of equity, justice and fairness towards deepening & Preservation of value of Democracy in Nigeria.”

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