BREAKING NEWS: Military insists on 15-year exit rule despite court order

File copy of the Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Markus Kangye

 The Defence Headquarters has declared that the Armed Forces of Nigeria will continue to enforce the controversial 15-year minimum service requirement for personnel seeking voluntary exit, despite a recent court judgment striking down the rule as unconstitutional.

On Tuesday, the National Industrial Court in Abuja ruled against the provision contained in the military’s Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service, describing it as a violation of fundamental rights.

Delivering judgment in a suit filed by Flight Lieutenant J.A. Akerele against the Nigerian Air Force, Justice Emmanuel Subilim held that the regulation amounted to “modern-day slavery under the guise of national service.”

The court concluded that no citizen can be compelled to remain in service against their will. Akerele, who was commissioned in 2013, had accused the Air Force of victimisation after he applied to resign.

He alleged his career was repeatedly derailed by abrupt training terminations, loss of seniority, and stagnation in promotions, leaving him traumatised and depressed.

The ruling immediately drew attention from within and outside the military, especially as it coincided with recent protests by retired soldiers over unpaid entitlements and rising complaints among serving officers about poor welfare and blocked career progression.

However, addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, the Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Markus Kangye, insisted the armed forces would not abandon the provisions of HTACOS until they were formally revised.

“The Armed Forces of Nigeria has a document which refers to our conditions and terms of service. In that document, everything regarding the disengagement of personnel is spelled out. Unless the terms and conditions of service are rewritten, we will still go by what is contained in that document,” Kangye said.

He explained that the 15-year service clause applied differently depending on the mode of entry into the military, stressing that each category of personnel — soldiers, cadets, and officers on short-service or direct short-service commissions — is bound by distinct obligations agreed upon at the point of entry.

According to him, soldiers typically enlist through recruitment depots, while officers join through the Nigerian Defence Academy as regular combatant cadets.

Graduates enter via the Short Service Commission, while professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and accountants join under the Direct Short Service scheme.

“Whichever applies to you at the point of entry is what governs your service until disengagement,” Kangye explained.

The Defence Headquarters’ stance sets the stage for a legal confrontation between the armed forces and personnel seeking to rely on the court ruling to resign before completing the mandatory 15 years.

Analysts warn that if unresolved, the standoff could deepen discontent among junior officers and fuel wider calls for reform in the military’s service conditions, particularly at a time when morale is strained by welfare disputes and ongoing security challenges nationwide.