For the Records: EXCERPTS OF EXTEMPORÉ SPEECH DELIVERED BY ANAMBRA STATE GOVERNOR, PROF. CHUKWUMA CHARLES SOLUDO, CFR, AT THE ARMED FORCES REMEMBRANCE DAY, JANUARY 15, 2025 AT DR ALEX EKWUEME SQUARE, AWKA

Protocol

Deputy Governor of Anambra State, the Right Honourable Speaker, the members of the House of Assembly, the State Chief Judge, the Service Commanders – the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Police, our Civil Defence, and all the other Service Commanders here present.

Our traditional rulers, members of the Executive and the Legislature here, I’m seeing representatives from the National Assembly, the State Assembly members, and all the dignitaries here present. I’m seeing officers of Ohaneze, ASATU, let me respectfully, stand on the established protocol.

Ndi Anambra, today, again, we’ve come to have this special day, 15th day of January every year, that our nation, Nigeria, remembers and honours our fallen heroes, prays for the peaceful repose of their souls, remembers the widows and widowers, remembers members of the Armed Forces – those who have fallen, those who are retired, all those who have served Nigeria in one capacity or the other, particularly those who paid the supreme sacrifice by laying down their lives, spilled their blood for the peace and security of our country, Nigeria.

Every 15th day of January, we do this as an annual ritual. Today, we’ve done the same; we’ve just laid the wreath, let off the pigeons – all symbolisms to say to our fallen heroes that we will never forget, we will ever be grateful, we’ll remember your sacrifices, your toil and sweat, and pray for the peaceful repose of your souls, and pray to Almighty God, as a nation, that their sacrifice will never be in vain.

Today, also, we specially celebrate our gallant men and women who are still in service all over the country. And we celebrate, particularly, for us here in Anambra, the gallant men and women of the armed forces, and the police, civil defence, and all the other paramilitary and security agencies, including, and not forgetting, our Anambra Vigilante personnel, who every day, put their lives on the line to secure Anambra State.

While we celebrate those of you alive, who are working tirelessly, sacrificing all your comfort. I just saw photos of the victories that you secured somewhere around Orumba South and parts of Orumba North, where some of these hoodlums, several of them, were neutralized, just about twenty-four hours or forty-eight hours ago, all in the bid to keep us safe.

You endure all manner of horrendous inconveniences, no accommodation, sometimes you sleep in the bush. Where I mean, especially for the soldiers, who are supposed to be defending Nigeria’s external territory against external aggression, but all of you today are involved in internal security, fighting people who have organized themselves and posed as potent threat of force, organized army by themselves, with central command and control, producing IEDs, digging bunkers, and using even superior weapons in some cases, all in the bid to engage in organized criminality, kidnapping, banditry. They have become very lucrative enterprise here in Nigeria.

According to the published statistics, last year, by the National Bureau of Statistics, more than two trillion naira was paid as ransom. But that’s the reported one. We believe that for everyone reported, more than five, six was probably not reported. And so, if you then cascade that, maybe then more than ten trillion was paid as ransom. It becomes the most lucrative business in town, kidnapping for ransom.

And therefore today we particularly celebrate, for us here in Anambra it is a moment to commend and celebrate our service commanders here all in their uniforms and through you down to the officers in the field, Anambra is grateful, Anambra appreciate your uncommon sacrifice, Anambra will not forget. And we will do whatever it is that is within our powers to give you the maximum support to encourage you to do the utmost that you can to secure, not just Anambra state but to secure Nigeria

At this moment let me specially, very specially, remember for our special prayers all the members of the armed forces, the police, the civil defense, the members of the vigilante, the soldiers who continue to lay down their lives in the course of duty.

I might add, in Anambra state where these hoodlums, these criminals, rabid criminals, organize themselves to attack the police, attack the army, attack the navy, attack the civil defense, the vigilante, and all those involved in trying to secure us.

When they started this mission initially, they came on a populist stand, concealing their real intentions. This was sold to Ndi Anambra and largely, a large part of the south-east, that people were going into the bush to secure them, to save them against what they called the herders, the herdsmen. They will go to the checkpoints and shoot policemen and take their AK-47 rifles. They will go to the barracks, dismantle the barracks, cart away the weapons, and several people.

I must say, a large chunk of society, I must admit, were complicit in silence, not speaking out, or doing nothing, or saying nothing. We hardly condemn these activities and actions by these hoodlums, and now with this arms that they’ve accumulated, they’ve gone into the bush, organized themselves. Of course, how do they feed on a day-to-day basis? How do they feed their families?

I want us also to remember that many of the security personnel who have died in the last few years did not die at the warfront, fighting another country. They died in the line of duty, coming to keep the peace, and the criminals intentionally, deliberately, in an organized fashion, went after them, killed them, and leaving their widows and widowers behind.

We must remember that we are part of the problem, and unless we understand that we are part of the problem, by either keeping silent and not saying anything, not condemning these actions when they are perpetrated, or even giving out information about the identity of the perpetrators, to that extent, we also share responsibility.

It will be sheer hypocrisy for us to come and every year, year in, year out, we say we are remembering these people, while the threats are still within and amongst us. These criminals are not spirits, they live amongst us, they live in our villages, they are people’s brothers, they are people’s children, they are people’s relations, they are people’s husbands and wives, they live amongst us.

And so, it’s not just enough to walk every fifteenth of January, solemnly walk, and lay the wreath, and remember our fallen heroes, we must make the point and realize that we are contributing, one way or the other, by acts of omission or commission, in having a continuing flow of people who die needlessly and senselessly.

So, while we commemorate this, I use it also as an occasion to call all of us to action, security of lives and property is a collective action. Each person has something to do, each person has a contribution to make.

And on Saturday, when we will officially be unveiling our new comprehensive security architecture to go after these criminals in a comprehensive and sustainable manner, hopefully, our new law, the Homeland Security Law of Anambra State, which is before the House of Assembly now, hopefully, that will be out by then.

I pray, the speaker and the members of the house, you are working very seriously on this, and Anambra people cannot wait to have that comprehensive law that will codify several of these misdemeanors and criminal activities; so we can have the legal basis to be able to prosecute and go after these criminals. We must cleanse Anambra, and we will also be calling on everybody, all citizens, all residents of Anambra, that it is our homeland and everybody has something to do. Even if you can’t do anything physically, at least you can say something. You know something, you say something.

So that our armed forces next year, when we come back, we don’t have the statistics, we don’t reel it out on this kind of day. But perhaps it might be sometimes necessary to reel out some of the statistics. Just about two weeks ago, some soldiers who went to dislodge these hoodlums somewhere around Ihiala Local Government, they recovered some of the IEDs. They are laying them out with cylinders and so on, probably inject telephones in them, and if you touch those, they call the phone, and then everything explodes.

After they had successfully thought they had dismantled these IEDs, and then carrying the cylinders away, of course, the cylinders were in the vehicles with the soldiers, they detonated them, and I think one or two soldiers lost their lives needlessly.

Today, we assemble and say they are fallen heroes. No, they need not have died. And our people must remember that these soldiers, these policemen, these people who patrol to keep us safe, they are breadwinners to some people, they are people’s husbands, people’s wives. They have children that depend on them, who, when they wake up in the morning, going out for work, these children and wives are waiting for daddy to come back, and you go there and murder them needlessly. They have done nothing to you.

I want to call on our people that this moment today, the fifteenth day of January, while we remember the dead, while we celebrate the living, all of us as a people must remember that the issue of security is our collective responsibility. Do something, save something, and together, as ndi Anambra, as Nigerians, we will be able to build that very safe, secured, and prosperous environment.

May God Almighty grant the souls of the faithful departed, our gallant soldiers, and members of the armed forces who have died, whether in the line of duty or in retirement. May God grant their souls eternal rest.

Let us continue to work together to build a safer, more secure, and more prosperous Anambra State. Thank you, and may God bless Anambra State, and may God bless Nigeria.

Extracted by Christian Aburime