Obaba Museum

January 15! A day we pause to pay tribute to our fallen heroes in the Armed Force. Year in year out, various monuments and cenotaphs across Nigeria are adorned with colourful wreaths placed solemnly and with much caution, lest the rugged souls be alarmed. To many, this is just another day set aside to honour the departed and living soldiers who have paid and are paying the supreme price to keep the national peace and territorial integrity. However it is also a day when we pause to remember the first intervention of certain military officers in politics which left a number of senior military and government officials dead in a bloody coup. Of course the silver lining is that it also symbolise the official end of the Nigerian Civil War, an intranational conflict which threatened to destroy the country’s unity.

Being a former British colony, Remembrance Day was formerly celebrated on 11 November as Armistice Day marking the end of the First World War. Upon the surrender and renunciation of Biafran by Gen. Phillip Effiong, (Ojukwu’s deputy) on 15 January 1970, the holiday was moved off the calendar of the Commonwealth of Nations and was changed to 15 January in commemoration of the conclusion of the Nigerian Civil War that sought to tear apart the unity of Nigeria.

Armed Forces Remembrance Day (AFRD), is observed every 15th of January not only to commemorate the servicemen of the Nigerian Armed Forces (both living and dead) but also to honor veterans of World War I and II as well as the bloody Nigerian Civil War.

It is a day set aside for sober reflections on the significance of the armed forces to the country.

Tribute to the rugged men and women of the Armed Forces who sacrifice their safety and comfort so that we might sleep peacefully.

Images: BashirAhmad/twitter