Can you believe that the increased salary that the President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces promised to pay Nigerian military personnel from September 1, 2026, has already been taken away by the imposition of an astronomical increase in the fees of Nigerian Air Force schools?
A case of the left hand taking back what the right hand gave, leaving the officers and other ranks who thought they’d have a respite from the effect of the subsidy that the government removed from petrol, electricity and foreign exchange.
In January 2024, the Nigerian Air Force increased the salaries of its men by 25 to 35 per cent, only to turn around and increase its school fees by 100 per cent. Recently, President Bola Tinubu announced an increase in the salaries of all military personnel by 30 to 80 per cent with effect from September 1, 2026, whereas the Air Force had earlier raised the school fees, again, by 100 per cent!
The salary and the school fees are playing a deadly catch-up game that promises a penurious impact on the finances of the men under arms with children in Air Force Schools. These servicemen, and the civilians who benefit from the educational service that the schools render to the greater community, do not deserve such treatment.
The following is an excerpt from the letter of appeal, written by the parents and guardians of the pupils and students of Nigerian Air Force primary, secondary, comprehensive and military schools throughout Nigeria to the Chief of the Air Staff, on June 29, 2026.
In the letter, the parents and guardians asked, “For a compassionate review of the recently approved school fees… which increased the tuition and boarding fees payable by parents by approximately one hundred per cent.”
It must be acknowledged that there is a significant differential between the lower school fees paid by the children of the other rank, and those of the officers, while the children of civilians generally pay nearly 200 per cent of the fees paid by the children of servicemen.
Understandably, the civilians pay more because the schools were primarily established to serve the interest of the servicemen wherever they may be transferred to within the Nigerian territory. Admission to the schools is an advantage to the children of civilians.
The parents and guardians, however, added, “While we appreciate the prevailing economic realities and the increasing cost of maintaining quality education standards, we are deeply concerned that the magnitude of the increase has come at a particularly difficult period for Nigerian parents.”
The fact that they recognise that the cost of living has risen appreciably is probably enough indication that they will be willing to accommodate some increase in the school fees, but not in such a drastic manner that could be detrimental to their financial wellbeing.
Even before the letter of appeal was written to the Chief of Air Staff by the parents and guardians, a certain Ambassador Anderson Osiebe had addressed a petition to the Chairmen of Nigeria Air Force Committees of the Senate and of the House of Representatives.
He drew the attention of the Committees to “the recent and alarming increase in school fees across Nigerian Air Force secondary schools nationwide.” But whilst also appreciating “the prevailing economic realities confronting institutions across the country,” as the parents of the student had done, he observes that “the magnitude of this increase has become a source of serious concern.”
He notes, and correctly so, that “These schools were established primarily as a welfare initiative to provide affordable, quality education for the children of officers and men of the Nigerian Military in recognition of their sacrifices and dedicated service to the nation.”
As a civilian parent who sent two boys to Nigerian Army Command School, where they received excellent education, training and exposure, it is difficult to look the other way when matters like this, which may even affect the morale of the servicemen, come up into the public domain.
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All good men who want the Nigerian Air Force to continue to deliver the excellent air coverage that it is giving to the infantry soldiers of the Nigerian Army as they engage the kidnappers, terrorists and insurgents that are jeopardising the lives and livelihood of Nigerians, must speak up.
The least they can do is to interrogate the matter in the interest of the Nigerian Air Force, which must of necessity maintain industrial harmony with its officers and other ranks, who are now being required to pay the increased school fees that may cause their children and wards to drop out of school.
It is beginning to look like the scandalous case of members of some religious denominations whose children cannot attend the schools and universities owned by their missions because the school fees of those institutions are beyond their reach.
One may add that the schools are a part of the statutory conditions of service, and that may explain why the school fees have to look as if they are subsidised. And if the school fees are subsidised, it is rightly so. That should be part of the benefits of those who are serving the nation in one of the most patriotic and deadliest ways.
Imagine the sense of security that the men who are currently prosecuting the war against Nigeria’s enemies will have when they know that their children are receiving good education in a conducive learning environment.
Ambassador Osiebe wondered, in the following worrisome words, “How are these personnel expected to meet these obligations alongside the ever-rising costs of accommodation, feeding, transportation, healthcare, and other essential family responsibilities?”
If the children of the airmen drop out of school, it will be pertinent to ask what purpose the schools will then be serving. They may just become white elephant educational monuments that have become sepulchres or graveyards of learning.
Maybe those who raised the school fees should be reminded that the government of President Tinubu introduced the interest-free National Education Loans Fund to ensure that no willing student is prevented from getting an education in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
Anyone would be justified in wondering if Group Captain Samson Adelakun, an old student at the Air Force School, would have joined the Nigerian Air Force and risen to the position of NAF Director of Education, if he had dropped out because his parents could not pay his school fees.
Adelakun would probably feel gravely insulted if he is likened to the ungrateful character that Shakespeare described in the following words in his play, “Julius Caesar,” “Lowliness is young ambition’s ladder/ Whereto the climber-upward turns his face/ But when he once attains the upmost round/ He then unto the ladder turns his back/ Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees/ By which he did ascend.”
The Minister of Defence, Chief of Air Staff and NAF Director of Education should meet to review the NAF school fees downward. No one should toy with the morale of men of the Nigerian Air Force who are currently delivering deadly strikes against those who are breaching Nigeria’s territorial integrity.
These gallant men are the hands that the government is using to perform its primary responsibility of providing security for all Nigerians.
By Lekan Sote