The Nigerian government's pursuit of international multilateral military collaboration, including intelligence sharing and strategic coordination, is a step in the right direction. However, this must be complemented by internal reforms to address systemic vulnerabilities.

In rare perspective, the approach towards boosting morale of the troop in war situation is more often tolerant of error far more than at peace moments.

This explains insistence that those unable to make promotion after the third attempts due to Minor mark down should be motivated for the benefits of the war at hand to avoid jeopardizing success of the emergency expectations.

The avoidable waste of resources on training military officers who might be lost to non-state actors is a stark reminder of the need for prudent human capital management as well as swift pull of trigger for the management of perceptions towards boosting of morale for combat operations.

While the indecent haste in retiring over 100 Major Generals in 2025 may be excused due to the fact that senior officers could not serve under the command of a junior officer that recently emerged as the new Chief of Army Staff, there is no excuse whatsoever to disregard presidential directive for the promotion of those that missed in the last exercise.

The implication of the failure to comply by the presidential directive on the impending promotion is the accompanying crises of leadership command which additional 86 waiting to be retired in the coming year of 2026 would create by so doing and this raises concerns about the strategic calculus underlying such decisions.

The huge investment in training officers risks being subverted through transfer of skills to non-state actors like Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Lakurawa.

The possibility of military personnel leveraging tactical intelligence against itself is a chilling prospect that demands urgent attention.

To address these contradictions, the government must adopt a holistic approach, integrating kinetic and non-kinetic interventions with focus, commitment, and patriotism.

Context-specific strategies, informed by best practices in military administration, auditing, and intelligence, are imperative albeit with some degrees of compassion in order to resolve the intractable security challenges afflicting the nation.

The imperative need for government to do the needful, in tandem with global collective military best practices, cannot be overstated although peculiar circumstances must be properly situated.

The security emergency demands a calibrated response, eschewing partisan politics and vested interests. The stakes are high, and the consequences of inaction are dire.

Nigeria's existential viability hangs in the balance, and the time for decisive action is now.

In conclusion, the retirement of over 100 Generals in October this year was a rude shock and disastrous for a country engulfed with insecurity.

The recent promotion to the rank of Brigadier General and Major Generals is said to be the worst in the history of the Nigerian Army bearing in mind over 100 vacancies exists and only 28 were promoted to the rank of Major General including a dead man who did not die in the act of gallantry like late General Uba.

This ill-fated promotion has received global condemnation and expectedly, the commander in chief directed that all those in third attempts be promoted yet the CDS and COAS are lethargic on this clear instruction.

In our view, if this directive is not obeyed immediately and another 56 Generals who still have up-to 10 years to serve our dear country, all junior and course mates to the Chief of Army Staff will be sent home to join the 100 Generals earlier retired.

By our findings, the looming retirement of 56 Generals in few months can only be avoided when the CDS and COAS comply and promote the Colonels to Brigadier and Brigadier Generals to Major Generals.

Anything short of this will be highly catastrophic.

• Being text of a statement issued on Sunday, December 28, 2025, by the Coalition of Civil Society Group for Transparency and Good Governance. It was signed by the Secretary,

Amb. Muhammad N.Bn Ahmad.

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