Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer Aloy Ejimakor has declared that the persistently low enlistment of South-East youths into the Nigerian Army reflects deep institutional distrust rooted in historical and ongoing military action against Ndigbo — not a lack of patriotism or courage — directly responding to Army Chief Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu’s public lament over the trend.
The Nigerian Army wants more Igbo recruits. Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer has a pointed explanation for why they are not coming.
Aloy Ejimakor, counsel to detained IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, took to X on Thursday to respond to comments by Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, who had lamented the persistently low turnout of South-East recruits at a passing-out parade at the Nigerian Army Recruits Training Depot in Amasiri-Edda, Ebonyi State.
Ejimakor’s diagnosis was direct. “The reluctance of Igbo youths to enlist in the Nigerian armed forces is not a deficit of valour, but a calculated refusal to serve an institution they deeply mistrust,” he wrote.
According to The Punch, he traced the distrust to what he described as a long and unhealed history of military action against Ndigbo — beginning with anti-Igbo killings by soldiers in Northern Nigeria in 1967 and extending to more recent incidents he said involved youths suspected of IPOB links, specifically citing the Nkpor, Aba prayer ground, Obigbo and Port Harcourt incidents as wounds “constantly reopened.”
Ejimakor also pointed to the military’s deradicalisation programme for former Boko Haram fighters as a further deterrent, arguing that South-East youths were unwilling to serve under a command they distrust alongside ex-insurgents.
“To ask them to bleed under a biased command, alongside former terrorists, is a compromise of dignity they refuse to make,” he stated, framing the low enlistment figures as quiet protest rather than absent patriotism.
The Army has repeatedly flagged South-East states as recording the lowest applicant numbers nationally during recruitment exercises, with unfilled slots redistributed to other regions. Military authorities have attributed the pattern partly to misinformation and maintained that enlistment remains merit-based and transparent.
Shaibu’s appeal at Amasiri-Edda is one of several such public calls Army officials have made in recent months.
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