By Our Correspondent
Maryam Muhammad, 24, from Yobe state, northeast Nigeria was recruited into the Nigerian Army at the 241 Nguru battalion in Yobe state. It was a dream come true – she had always been dreaming of joining the military since childhood.
In June, Maryam and other recruits were sent to the Nigerian Army Depot in Zaria, Kaduna state, for a 5 – month training, which was to last till October.
On arrival at the training camp in Nigerian Army Depot Zaria, the recruits were made to repeat medical tests and physical examinations they took during the recruitment process at the Yobe state training camp. Thereafter, they were allowed to proceed for documentations, having been found without any problem.
However, barely three months into the training, precisely on 11th September, 2024, the story changed – Maryam, alongside six others were dismissed from the training camp on the grounds that they were pregnant.
What went wrong?
On arrival the Army Depot, the recruits were shared into the various company hostels. And as a practice, the Army conducts pregnancy tests “on female recruits after every two weeks,” Maryam said.
Last Month, the ladies were taken to the Military Recruiter Information Suites (MRIS), for a test, “everything was okay,” according to Maryam.
But three 3 weeks later, the Army officers called Maryam and 6 others and told them they were pregnant – they were detained them at the MRIS for 2 days. “We’re 7 but only two of us were locked up in the room, the remaining 5 have godfathers,”. Maryam said. The other 5 were left to remain in the hostel, while Maryam and a fellow recruit, named Hannatu, were under custody.
The two groups didn’t meet until when they were to be taken to the 44 Nigeria Army Reference Hospital in Kaduna. Even at that, Maryam said, the five female recruits were provided a different vehicle.
“We don’t know where the other five go. Only two of us were taken to 44 [Army Reference Hospital] for pregnancy test” Maryam said, adding that they only saw the other five “coming back together with us, I don’t know where they carried them to, because they have godfathers there,” she emphasized.
At the 44 Army Reference Hospital, Maryam and her fellow recruit, Hannatu, went through the pregnancy test and were scanned twice, all the results came out negative, but there was infection. Aside that, Maryam claimed they were “pronounced free of everything.” The doctor added that if the officers were doubting the test, they should bring back the ladies after two weeks.
On Monday 9th September, the ladies were taken back to the 44 Army Reference Hospital and scanned again, but this time around using a different doctor. Maryam said the doctor went on to insert an instrument through their private parts “to check if our wombs are carrying babies.”
Each time, “they’ll bring seven of us out of the hostels, but only two of us will be taken to enter the motor, and taken to 44, the others will not follow us,” Maryam said. The other recruits will enter different vehicle and taken to a different place.
At a point, the Doctors, Maryam said, “told our female leader to stop accusing us, we’re not pregnant, only infection, that’s the problem. They should go and treat us and allow us continue with our training.”
When the recruits were taken back to the Army Depot in Zaria, the female leader called the recruitment commander, to take a look at the result, the commander said, he would do that the following morning on Tuesday 10th September.
The dismissal
On Wednesday 11th, after Maryam closed from class, and was about entering the hostel, she was called, “before I dropped my bag, they called our names, we left our bags with colleagues and turned back. As we turned back, they called fire alarm, and said they want to depose some female recruits.
“They did not allow the two of us to talk, but the remaining 5 female recruits were given the time to talk, to say whether they were guilty or not.
“I raised my hand, the man said I cannot talk. That when a senior officer is talking, recruit cannot talk. But because I have a little experience about that, I said, sir, I want to explain myself because I know I’m not guilty, I did not do anything wrong.
The man told them that the pregnancy was since they were in Yobe, before they arrived Zaria. Maryam couldn’t believe it. “If I have pregnancy, I would not have passed the test. They conducted the test 3 times when we reported to the Army Depot, this is the 4th time.
“Why is that they did not say I’m pregnant for the 3 months I stayed inside the Depot till now? I know myself, I’m not pregnant, if I’m pregnant all the training activities we’ve been doing, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.
“We did our 5 kilo; I’m their Buffalo there. I’m the one that win cup for them for our company. We did our combination; I was among their quarter guard. I did all the activities among them. if I’m pregnant I wouldn’t have done them.
“I’m the one leading them, they gave me room leader and squad leader. If I was going somewhere my room mates will testify. Even my room mates said 247 I was together with them. Even one day they did not see me go out. Unless I’m going to MRIS, I’ll come and meet them inside the company.
“I was not going anywhere. Even my leaders know. I don’t know how they manipulated the result; I don’t know. They did not give us any pregnancy test result, report sheet. They hide it, I don’t know”, she lamented.
When Maryam was leaving the Depot on 11th September, a Lt. Colonel came and ask the five other recruits to wait, and not go yet.
“He promised to come and pick them. I left there. Since 2 pm, they kept us until 9 pm in the night,” that was when they asked them to leave the barrack.
To prove the army wrong, the following day after being sent out from the Army Depot Zaria, Maryam went to a government health facility (Name withheld), and carried out a pregnancy test, the result came out and showed negative – she was not pregnant.
Maryam claims she had spent over N700,000.00 in the whole process, starting from the recruitment in Yobe till the three months and two weeks she spent in the Army Depot Zaria.
“Starting from the state you will be the one to feed yourself for 2 weeks and buy some material for the screening, and if you are going to Depot, you will buy foodstuffs that u will be using, and there are some materials that they said we should go with.
“And each week my father use to send feeding money for me, because, the Depot doesn’t give us allowance to buy soap or anything. The depot commander said till we pass out before he will pay us the allowance,” she narrated.
Nigerian Military and Gender
When contacted for a response, the Army Public Relations Officer, Zaria Depot, Captain Everest Ochienta, neither picked his calls, nor replied SMS sent to him until press time.
Maryam’s story is certainly contrary to the efforts made by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, who in April 2021 unveiled the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) Gender Policy meant to promote gender mainstreaming in the armed forces to ensure career paths of female personnel were unhindered.
The gender policy seeks to among others guarantee 35 percent affirmative action of women and achieve increased women involvements in recruitment and enlistment, among others, as well as the institution of maternity and paternity leave for both men and women of Nigerian Armed forces.
Financial underhand allegations
An activist, Director General of Centre for Justice on Religious and Ethnicity in Nigeria, Rev. Kallamu Musa Ali Dikwa who initially raised the alarm, alleged the replacement of the victim recruits with children of the rich.
He stated in a protest statement that “One of the senior military officers that discussed with us said, all the pregnancy test were negatives. Maryam and Hannatu only have infections, and the military rules and regulation is to treat the infections, not to send them out of the training camp.
“In the year 2016, I came across same case of this nature, which happened to one Idoma boy, and I met him bitterly crying at Television Garage in Kaduna, but then I called one of the senior Air force officers on phone and told him that I’m going to invite media men to interview the young man, he quickly asked the recruitment officer to return the young man before this issue will become another thing – for him not to lose his own job.
Rev. Dikwa alleges that all the other security agencies do the same, narrating the story of a 2-star police officer who wanted his son to join the police force but was asked to pay N400,000.00 by someone in the police service commission. The man lost the opportunity because he doesn’t have the money.
Maryam, a secondary school leaver is currently stranded and not too sure of what to do, going forward.
