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If the suspension of female cadets is true, how strange will it be?

On the 13th November 2017, Punch online, ran a news with the title: “Military Stop admission of combatant female cadets”, but the Army has denied stopping the admission.

According to Punch, the Nigerian Military is set to end the admission of female cadets into combatant course.

It further read that the recommendation to halt the programme came at President Buhari’s inauguration of Armed Forces Council.

Punch also claimed that a serving General in the Nigerian Army, who plead anonymity, said the decision to end the Programme was taken after complaints by some Northern Muslim Leaders.

“It is only the Regular Combatant Commission that can give an officer the opportunity to aspire to head any of the services or rise to become the Chief of Defence Staff, while the others have limited career path. If the military is able to scrap this programme, women will never be able to head any of the arms of the Nigerian military.

“The northern Muslim leaders want to prevent a situation where one day, a woman will lead the army and give orders to men,” it reads.

The anonymous General further said the female cadets outshined their male counterparts in the Academy.

“When we started the training of female cadets in 2011, we never thought it would be successful. When the first set of women cadets graduated from the academy last year, women won three awards, including the best award in the navy category.

“A female cadet, C. Lord-Mallam, won the Navy Gold award which is the highest in the navy category. The Army Silver award, which is the second highest in the army, went to a female cadet, K. O Dayo-Karim. The Air Force Silver award was also won by a female cadet, O. S Ijelu.

HISTORY OF FEMALE CADETS

In 2011, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan ordered that the Nigerian Defence Academy start admitting females who have interest in becoming combatant officers.

The then Minister of Defence, Adetokunbo Kayode, while making this announcement said the President took the decision because it was the right thing to do, adding that “Other countries in Africa are already doing it and they are not better than us”.

“Presently, we have female armoured tank drivers, female Para-troopers, Jumpers, and so on. We will follow international best practices in this regards. We want to have strong, virile armed forces devoid of discrimination.

“To redress this obvious anomaly and in line with conviction of the President that every Nigerian irrespective of Gender or any affiliation should be given equal opportunity to excel in his or her chosen field of life, Mr. President has directed the immediate enlistment and training of female regular combatant commission officers into the Nigerian armed forces”.

After the announcement, 20 female cadets were admitted in the first year to for the 63rd Regular Course combatant training, nicknamed “Jonathan Queens”.

In 2013, it was reported that the number of female cadets in the Academy had risen to 56.

ARMY RESPONDS

Director, Defence Information, Major General John Enenche, has refuted the claims about stopping the admission of female cadets into the regular combatant officers, describing it as “an act of disinformation to the general public by mischievous individuals.”

“The contents of all those publications are ill-intended concoctions, not authentic and should, therefore, be disregarded outrightly.

“Exactly, the provision in the terms and conditions of service for female officers of the Nigerian Military is that ‘they are eligible for all the types of Commission that are grantable to their male counterparts’, which has not changed,” the Director stated.

Women in Combat around the World

The United States Army has a Combat Exclusion Policy which excluded women from combat since 1948. In 1993, this ban was lifted for some women in the Aviation Sector, but in 1994 again, the Pentagon emphasised this ban when it said:

Service members are eligible to be assigned to all positions for which they are qualified, except that women shall be excluded from assignment to units below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground

These includes Infantry, Artillery, Special Forces and Armor. The US Army went as far as banning women from pertaking in situations that involves “collocation” which means even if a female soldier is involved in support services and such support service unit now intends to assist a combatant unit, the women should be pulled off. Women were not allowed to serve in 238,000 positions in the American Army.

This ban was only lifted in 2013.

On its part, Israel made it mandatory for women to be conscripted into the military. The conscription for single and married women without children began in 1948.

Initially, the women were to serve in the Women Army Corps as clerks, nurses, radio operators, welfare workers, course instructors, flight controllers among others until the early 1980s when roles beyond the technical secretarial duties started to open.

The Equality Bill that granted equal opportunities for women to combat support and light combat roles was passed as recent as 2000.

France is also one of the countries that enlist female into combat roles in the Military forces. But prior to that, they were responsible for preparing meals for soldiers in the 1800s. During the French Revolution, some women were enlisted for support-roles and the roles advanced into medical personnel in 1914.

A neurosurgeon, Valerie Andre became the first woman in France that got the rank of a three-star General as Médecin Général Inspecteur. She was also the first woman to fly a helicopter during combat. Currently, the females constitute 11% of the Army, 13% in the Navy, 21% in Air Force and 50% of the Medical Corps in France. But this is the highest proportion of female personnel in Europe. This means there is no European Army with more than 11% women.

Some Muslim Countries like Algeria and the United Arab Emirates also allow women in the Military.

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