Aloy Ejimakor, Special Counsel to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has said many Igbo youths are unwilling to enlist in the Nigerian Army because they lack confidence in the institution.
Ejimakor made the claim in a post on X, where he argued that the military has repeatedly been used against the Igbo and that this has eroded trust among young people in the South-East.
According to him, many youths in the region also oppose what he described as the integration of “repentant” Boko Haram members into the military.
He wrote: “The reluctance of Igbo youths to enlist in the Nigerian armed forces is not a deficit of valor, but a calculated refusal to serve an institution they deeply mistrust. Historically and presently, Ndigbo face systematic marginalization within an ethnically unbalanced leadership structure in Nigeria’s security services.
“More critically, the armed forces are repeatedly weaponized against Ndigbo in times of crisis. The trauma of the 1967 army massacres of Ndigbo in the North remains an unhealed wound, constantly reopened by modern atrocities targeting youths suspected of IPOB ties, such as the state-sanctioned violence at Nkpor, the Aba prayer ground, Obigbo, the Trump victory rally in Port Harcourt, and many others.
“Furthermore, these youths are deeply appalled by the integration of ‘repentant’ Boko Haram terrorists into the military. To ask them to bleed under a biased command, alongside former terrorists, is a compromise of dignity they refuse to make.
“So, their reluctance to enlist is not cowardice. Instead, it is a quiet, powerful protest against an institution that has often betrayed Ndigbo.”
