By Paul Omoruyi
Remember the days when the Nigeria Military was enviably one of the
most respected institutions in Nigeria? It was thought to be only for a
selected few; at lease for those in the Southern part of the country. As
teenagers in the 1990s, we respected and envied anyone who was able to
get into the Nigeria Defense Academy (NDA). Then only those that either
have the right connections or that have demonstrated some exceptional
degree of extra-terrestrial intelligence (by scoring 100/100 in the
“showmanship examinations”) would have the opportunity to be accepted
into the Academy.
When NDA students visit home during their vacation, they would relay
stories of how the NDA students from the North cannot write simple
sentences or even spell their names; how some of the students do not
have high school diploma and how they are forced to school daily by
their parents/relatives. Here we are in the South under rigorous
academic duress studying hard to make 100/100 in the examination so we
can even have a chance. Some of our friends had to change their names to
Mohammed, Mustaphar, Abdulkarim before registering for the NDA
examination so they would have a modicum of chance to be accepted.
To date, I still cannot recall the real driver behind our interest in
the NDA. But we studied and worked so hard to pass the examination;
albeit unsuccessfully. In the 3-4 years period when we were writing NDA
examinations year-after-year, it was only 2 or 3 of us in that
generation of friends that made it into the academy. We later found out
that they were accepted not because of their high examination scores but
because the academy needed to give the south some “quota” that year. Go
figure!
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