INVESTIGATION: Anger in Nigerian Army over non-payment of salaries, delay by Central Bank

Personnel of the Nigerian Army are presently angry over an unusual delay in their monthly salary, particularly for the month of April despite the ongoing Sallah celebrations.

CaracalReports learnt that the fault came from the officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria who delayed the processing of the salaries, blaming some technological hitches.

Some of the soldiers who are also currently fighting insurgency, banditry, terrorism and other crimes across Nigeria said it was unfair that their salaries had not yet been paid while asking the Federal Government of Nigeria to do the needful and pay them up.

According to some of the soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity, the non-payment of their April 2022 salaries has deprived them and their families from having a small respite during the Sallah holiday.

This development they say goes to show how insensitive the Government and their superiors are to their huge sacrifices to the nation.

“We don’t know how the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, and the military hierarchy could sleep freely at night in their cozy beds while we are out in the streets hungry with our families even during festivities,” one of them lamented.  

However, some senior officers of the Finance Corps of the military said the non-payment of April 2022 salaries of troops was not the fault of the military. According to them, the military authorities did not receive funds from the government until 28 April, 2022.

According to the pay officers, they had sent salary schedules with mandates to the Central Bank of Nigeria on the same 28 April, 2022 in anticipation of receipt of the funds. Unfortunately, the CBN was unable to effect payment of salaries to Nigerian soldiers on 28 April, 2022 because the bank claimed its e-payment platform was down.

The senior pay master that spoke said that representatives of the military remained in CBN till almost 11pm on 28 and 29th April, 2022, hoping that the bank’s platform will come up to effect payment of troops’ salaries before Sallah.

Regrettably, CBN’s IT department informed the military pay masters around 9pm of 29 April, 2022 that the platform was not responding to all the troubleshooting that they did and as such there was nothing they could do.

“Against all entreaties by our representatives to the CBN staff to tarry a bit or continue on Saturday April 30, 2022 noting that it was better late than never at least, the CBN staff would not listen and promised to continue on Wednesday 4th April, 2022 after the holiday.

“There was nothing we could do under the circumstance since it was Federal Government’s directive under TSA to all Government Ministries, Agencies and Departments; including the military to domicile their accounts with the CBN and effect all payments inclusive of salaries through the CBN,” one of the military account officers said.