Reps move to stop Army policy retiring SSCC, DSSC officers early

The House of Representatives has moved to stop the Nigerian Army’s policy of automatically merging years spent in service as soldiers with years served as commissioned officers, warning that the practice is forcing experienced personnel out of service prematurely and creating avoidable manpower shortages. The move followed the consideration of a motion on notice moved by Adamawa lawmaker, Zakaria Nyampa on the need to review and discontinue the automatic merger of service years for personnel commissioned through the Short Service Combatant Commission, Direct Short Service Commission and Direct Regular Commission. Presenting the motion, Nyampa noted that the Nigerian Army currently operates a policy that automatically merges years spent in service as soldiers with years served as officers after commissioning. He explained that the policy also counts periods spent in university education or awaiting commissioning as part of an officer’s total reckonable service. According to him, “The practice is inconsistent with the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service 2017 (Revised), which defines an officer’s military service as “a period of unbroken service in the Armed Forces of Nigeria from the date of commission to the date of retirement.” The lawmaker further argued that the policy violates the doctrine of legitimate expectation and principles of contractual fairness contained in Sections 7 and 91 of the Labour Act. Nyampa told the House that beyond legal concerns, “The policy has wider implications for military operations and personnel management.” He continued, “The automatic merger policy is discriminatory, undermines morale and cohesion within the officer corps, accelerates the retirement of experienced personnel, creates manpower gaps, increases recruitment costs, erodes institutional memory, and deviates from international best practices,” he added. Adopting the motion, the House urged the Nigerian Army Council to discontinue the automatic merger of service years for officers commissioned through SSCC, DSSC and DRC and make such mergers optional, to be applied only upon the written request of affected officers for pension computation purposes. Related News 2027: APC deploys 4.4m polling unit officials for Tinubu’s re-election — Uzodimma Senate orders ex-NNPCL boss Kyari’s arrest over N210tn unaccounted funds Adeleke, others unhurt as stage collapses at Osun political rally Lawmakers also called on the Armed Forces Council to “Harmonise service reckonability across the Nigerian Army, Navy and Air Force to ensure fairness, cohesion and uniformity in mili