The National Chairman of Nigerian Legion, Abdulmalik Jibril, has called for more welfare support and continuous well-being of military veterans.
Jubril made the call during the Nigerian legion’s humanitarian day ceremony held at the legion headquarters on Thursday in Abuja.
He said that veterans who had served the nation require special treatment, particularly as well as the disabled, sick, aged and needy and to promote welfare of their dependents.
According to him, “The Legion Humanitarian Day ceremony is one of the major events lined up by the Ministry of Defence towards the Year 2023-Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration.
“This is an annual event hosted by the Nigerian Legion to attend to the welfare needs of ex-servicemen, military widows and other depandents of our veterans.
“As we are all aware, the Nigerian Legion was established up by the Act of Parliament No.18 of 1964. This piece of Legislation has been amended over the years and the current amendment in force is the Nigerian Legion Act 37 of 1988″, he explained.
Jubril further lamented that despite 1988 act on welfare, the legion has not received budgetary allocations from the federal government since 1989.
He said, “The basic functions assigned by this Act to the Nigerian Legion centered mainly on the welfare of ex-servicemen, widows of veterans who paid the supreme sacrifices in active service as well as other dependants but from archives, the last time annual budget was release to the Veteran Affairs Department in Ministry of Defence was 1989.
“The money realized annually from donations, rents and other sources is a far-cry from what we require to fulfill our statutory functions nationwide. Retirees and military widows are increasing on daily basis due to our current state of national insecurity”.