Nigerian army asks 40 officers to retire

The Nigerian Defence Ministry has asked 40 top army officials to retire, a Nigerian defence spokesman said today, two months after the country swore in a new president.

“There’s no big deal about it. It’s a continuous process,” said Col. Mohammed Yusuf, who insisted the process was routine in Africa’s largest oil exporter.

He said that under new Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua, the armed forces would be sticking strictly to rules that said members must retire at the age of 60, or after 35 years of service.

“They will now try to follow the process very properly, like it did not happen before. Once it is time, there is nothing you can do,” he said. Yusuf insisted that the retirements had no political motive.

“There is nothing like mass retirement,” he said, pointing out that classes of officers often graduate over 100 at a time. He refused to say how many generals were in the Nigerian armed forces or how many were being retired as a matter of national security.

Nigeria has undergone several tumultuous decades of military rule and seven coups since wresting independence from Britain in 1960.