The Military As a Non-Caring Institution: A Case Study of Nigerian Military Widows of the Boko Haram Conflict

Abstract

This study examines the Nigerian Army’s provision of benefits to widows of soldiers killed in the Boko Haram conflict. While military institutions generally offer compensation to bereaved families, the effectiveness of such programs varies. This qualitative research, employing in-depth interviews and focus groups, argues that the Nigerian Army deals with the widows of its fallen soldiers in a bureaucratic and non-caring manner when they access their spousal benefits. This lack of administrative assistance is exacerbated by the widows’ reliance on patronage networks to access their entitlements. These experiences foster a perception of the military as an uncaring institution. The study concludes by urging the Nigerian Army to streamline its bureaucratic processes and eliminate inefficiencies and unprofessional conduct to fulfill its obligations toward fallen soldiers’ families. Failure to do so has severe consequences at various levels for military families, the military, and society.

Introduction

Since 2009, the Nigerian State has been involved in a war against the terror group Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP). ¹ The Boko Haram terrorist group, officially known as Jamaat Ahlis Sunnar Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad (JAS), meaning “people committed to the propagation of the Prophet’s teachings and jihad,” rose to global infamy in 2014 over its abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno state Nigeria (Onuoha & Oyewole, 2018; Oyewole, 2016). Since then, Both Boko Haram and ISWAP have emerged as one of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups (Institute for Economics and Peace, 2019). The Nigerian military ² has deployed the single most significant number of soldiers in any internal security operation in post-independence Nigeria since 1960 to counter Boko Haram. Thousands of soldiers have died and become permanently incapacitated in the protracted conflict since 2009 (Ajala, 2023).

In response to the killing of soldiers, military wives and widows, protested in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State and epicenter of the Boko Haram conflict in 2014. They expressed their anger against the Nigerian military for not adequately equipping soldiers to fight against Boko Haram and tried to prevent the military from deploying their husbands, stating that they were tired of burying their loved ones. The military responded unsympathetically, “the nation was depending on the Army to address the security challenges; therefore, it was wrong for spouses to begin a cowardly act capable of demoralizing the military” (Channels TV, 2014). Such responses have evoked feelings that the military is a non-caring institution in terms of how they deploy soldiers, deal with their deaths, and its impact on the lives of military widows. More recently, in a different conflict in northwest Nigeria, military wives marched to the official headquarters of the Nigerian Army in Zura, Kebbi State, claiming that “the killing is too much and is unacceptable, we would not agree to such killing, they have turned us to widows” (Sahara Reporters, 2022). The combat deaths of their husbands has left many military widows destitute. These women struggle to cope with the emotional and financial loss, exacerbated by the challenges they face in accessing welfare benefits, especially when their husbands are missing in action (MIA). The administrative processes to confirm MIA status are cumbersome, requiring documents like death certificates that widows often cannot quickly obtain. Widows are caught between having to prove their husbands’ fate and slow-moving military authorities and other forms of exploitation based on their vulnerable status.

Military widowhood literature often centers on the issue of benefits and compensations, exploring themes of symbolic sacrifice, grief, and support for the widows’ livelihoods (Rashid, 2018; Shalev & Gal, 2018; Zahedi, 2006). Limited research exists on the specific challenges faced by military widows in Africa, particularly regarding the exploitation they experience from inefficient, corrupt, and unprofessional military bureaucracies. Therefore, this study aims to establish the welfare benefits Nigerian military widows and their families are entitled to, identify the challenges they face in accessing these benefits, and how this contributes to the perception of the Nigerian military as a non-caring institution. By examining these issues, this research hopes to highlight the plight of military widows in Nigeria and potentially influence reforms.

The study took place over 4 months in Lagos, Abuja, and Maiduguri between December 2020 and March 2021. A total of 29 military widows of officers and non-commissioned officers were interviewed. Participants belonged to the three main ethnic groups (Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa) in Nigeria and practiced either of the two main religions (Christianity and Islam). The snowball and purposive sampling were used to select participants, and in-depth one-on-one semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. This approach provided the conversational space to explore the experiences of participants comprehensively. The data was coded with Atlas. Ti and analyzed using thematic analysis to identify key themes related to women’s lived experiences in accessing their military benefits within the broader social context of war. Voluntary requests for participation and consent were sought from the women, and the study used pseudonyms to identify the participants. All ethical protocols associated with conducting research with human participants were adhered to. Before discussing the findings, it is necessary to examine the concept and context of care and caring organizations as they relate to the military institution.

The Military As a Caring or Non-Caring Organization

In considering whether the military is a caring or non-caring organization, it is essential first to understand what this entails. Within an organization, establishing, maintaining, and enhancing caring relations (Noddings, 2010) is based on attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness to the needs of employees (Tronto, 1993). While the concept of care was initially used in feminist and women’s studies, it has since transcended these fields, and moved to domains of organizational management. This has led to explorations of what defines a caring organization, the potential for genuine care within organizations, the criteria for categorizing public organizations as caring or non-caring, and how organizations support their members. Typically, caring organizations are defined as those in which employees and other members perceive the organization as “caring, supportive, and nurturing” (Vinaski-Peretz and Carmeli, 2011: 44) and where “personal concern about the welfare of others and self is the norm” (Fuqua and Newman, 2002: 134). As such, a caring institution demonstrates empathy and compassion toward its members, strives to alleviate suffering or hardship, and treats members with dignity and respect (Held, 2006).

In contrast, a non-caring institution may be described as the opposite of a caring institution, but it goes beyond this. It speaks to broader issues of how an organization and its members respond to the sufferings of their members, how members of an organization express feelings of neglect and abandonment, and how the organization’s structure reinforces its non-caring nature (Dutton et al., 2006; Kong & Belkin, 2022). In terms of organizational structure, a top-down command and vertical institution is generally considered less caring than a decentralized and horizontal organizational structure, which is more relational and appears to foster more care and compassion (Talen, 2021; Tronto, 2010). There are many debates on whether large bureaucratic institutions can be caring, responsive, and attentive to particulars and prioritize relations rather than rules in their work (Bourgault, 2017: 3).

Therefore, the question is, can a highly masculine, bureaucratic, and hierarchical organization like the military be a caring institution? We argue that while militaries are bureaucratic and hierarchical, they exhibit caring and non-caring attributes. They can be described as caring organizations as they possess caring attributes such as service, relationality, support, concern about welfare, and responsibility (Saks, 2021). These caring attributes are demonstrated through providing welfare benefits and formal support for military families. These include, for example, child development centers, spousal employment programs, family counseling and advocacy programs, educational support, military health, and work–life balance programs.

Militaries have relied on these formal support systems to enhance the well-being of individual service members and provide family support (Dandeker et al., 2015; De Angelis & Segal, 2015; Ender, 2023). Military organizations demonstrate a caring nature by providing work and residence adjacency and actively integrating spouses into the community. This inclusivity and support within the military community are vital aspects that promote the idea of the military as a caring institution.

However, unlike other organizations where this care is more interpersonal, in the military, care is afforded mostly administratively through the chain of command and military bureaucracy. These methods of delivery and expression often hinder them from caring directly at an interpersonal level because of their impersonality, hierarchy, and rule-based approaches (Bourgault, 2017, 2020). Nonetheless, these large organizational bureaucracies can demonstrate care by providing the enabling conditions for it (Noddings, 2015: 83). These enabling conditions include attentiveness and responsiveness to members’ needs and sensitivity in applying and adhering to rules that affect the welfare of soldiers and their families (Bourgault, 2017).

Care in the military can also be adjudged through the lenses of reciprocity that inheres between the soldier and the State, where the soldier serves the State, and the State, in turn, cares and provides for the soldier and his family during military service and after service-related incidents, such as injury or death. This is because military deaths are regarded as the supreme sacrifice. They come with financial and non-financial rewards, such as death benefits, gratuities, bereavement allowances/grants, and remembrance ceremonies that seek to compensate parents, widows, and or orphans of soldiers who died in combat and or active service (Dooley et al., 2019; Rashid, 2022; Vinitzky-Seroussi & Ben-Ari, 2000; Wendt, 2019). These benefits and compensations are an obligatory and statutory requirement in several militaries. These provisions demonstrate the caring and compassionate nature of the military and compensate for the greedy nature of military service. They also align with specific characteristics of the institutional model of military organizations, which offer non-cash forms of compensation and benefits to service members (Moskos, 1986; Segal, 1986).

There are legislations and policies to benefit the deceased individual’s eligible partner and children. They are typically tax-free and cover guaranteed income payments for the survivors as designed by the State. The compensation package often involves payments of pensions and gratuities, child education assistance benefits, housing allowances, medical benefits, burial allowances, and other social security benefits (Australian Government, n.d.; Department of Families and Commemoration, n.d; Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004; Ministry of Defence (MoD), 2023; Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF), 2004).

However, accessing these benefits is often fraught with difficulties, particularly in African militaries, where the women contend with excessive bureaucratic red tape and cultural practices that show the bureaucracies’ non-caring and dysfunctional nature. These were the experiences of military widows of the Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) and the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), where, in different contexts, they had to provide multiple proofs of their marital and widowhood status and struggled with the accuracy of financial payment platforms (Baaz & Verweijen, 2016; Long, 2013; Oguna, 2016).

These instances show that despite the availability of laws and policies, military widows of African state militaries (unlike many Western countries) encounter insurmountable challenges in accessing their benefits, primarily due to the dysfunctional nature of military bureaucracies. A dysfunctional military bureaucracy is typically ineffective, inflexible, and prone to bottlenecks that impair efficiency and impartiality. This is often due to the centralization of authority, excessive red tape, strict adherence to rules, and a lack of communication between units. (Alvinius, 2013; Shields, 2004). In contrast, a functional military bureaucracy, which corresponds to the Weberian model of bureaucracy, which, among other characteristics, is rational, impersonal, impartial, and practical, is based on a strict chain of command, hierarchy, and accountability that applies the rules professionally, consistently, and impartially under the institution’s rules and regulations (Miewald, 1970; Weber, 1946).

The conditions of dysfunctional bureaucracies allow for inefficiencies to creep into the chain of command, causing a lengthy time lag in decision-making and the completion of tasks. This creates the perception of being a non-caring institution, where officials are not attentive, responsive, or capable of listening to those in front of them. Exacerbating this is where military officials act without legal authority and usurp formal rules and order (Rudi, 2008). Another factor contributing to a dysfunctional military bureaucracy is when it becomes bound with a system of neo-patrimonialism, “patrons” who use state resources to secure loyalty or rent from clients in exchange for goods or services (Ikpe, 2000). In this case, the patrons are military officials who hold positions in bureaucratic organizations and use their networks for profit and personal gain (Erdmann & Engel, 2007). Occasionally, these positions show personalized forms of caring without supporting conditions that promote caring.

Altogether, these practices, which result in the abuse of bureaucratic/state offices for personal gains, engender corruption and undermine the institutional functioning and integrity of the military bureaucracy (Yurtseven, 2021). As the findings of this study show in the next section, dealing with the dysfunctional military bureaucracy is an insurmountable challenge facing military widows trying to access death benefits and entitlements from the Nigerian military. It has led to the military being perceived as a non-caring organization.

The Nigerian Military and the Plight of Its Military Widows

This section examines the challenges faced by Nigerian military widows in accessing their benefits from the Nigerian military. It begins by providing a overview of the military’s death benefits system, outlining the benefits available to deceased service members and the role of Next of Kins (NOKs) in processing these benefits. It explores three main themes: the lack of clear guidelines regarding the benefits process, incomplete benefits payments, and difficulties in accessing educational sponsorships. These themes highlight the obstacles Nigerian military widows encounter in obtaining their rightful entitlements.

Death Benefits and Entitlements

The Nigerian Military (in this case, the Army) provides statutory benefits to the NOKs of its soldiers who died in combat/active duty. These NOKs are relatives of the deceased (spouse, adult children, parents, or siblings). ³ The NOK is entitled to the following benefits in wartime or other active service death. They include:

• Burial expenses: Nigeria Army Welfare Insurance Scheme (NAWIS) (also known as the death benefit),

• Gratuity (60 months pension),

• Group life assurance policy claims of the Armed Forces, and

• Educational sponsorship of up to four deceased biological/adopted children aged 6 to 18 years up to tertiary institution level (Military Pensions Board, 2019).

These benefits are a regular feature in different militaries (MoD, 2022; The Kenya Defence Forces Act, 2012). Payments are made to the NOK of the deceased soldier, ⁴ and the amounts are computed based on personnel ranks and the existing Armed Forces Pensions/Gratuity Pay Scales approved by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC). Burial expenses provide immediate assistance to the family of the deceased soldier, pending the payment of other allowances, and to defray any burial costs incurred by the deceased’s family. The pension given in case of death in active service (whether killed or MIA or any active service death) is a bulk pension of five years (60 months). Personnel who served for five years and above, but less than ten years are entitled to gratuity as specified in the Pensions Act, whereas soldiers who have served for ten years and above are paid gratuity and pensions.

The NAWIS, more commonly known as Death Benefit payment, is a welfare insurance scheme that covers occupational hazards of injuries or deaths associated with soldiering duties in either war or peacetime and is not covered by conventional insurance organizations (Aliyu, 1995). The modes of contributions to the NAWIS are monthly deductions from the salaries of all serving personnel, and the rates are subject to review at different intervals. NAWIS maintains a life cover policy for all NA personnel with an approved insurance company as the underwriter. ⁵

Another benefit the Nigerian Military paid to widows of its fallen soldiers is the Group Life Assurance payment. The Nigerian Defence Headquarters (DHQ) supervises this payment. Section 5 of the Nigeria Pensions Reform Act (2014) states that:

every employer shall maintain a Group Life Insurance Policy in favour of each employee for a minimum of three times the annual total emolument of the employee and premium shall be paid not later than the date of commencement of the cover. (Pensions Reform Act, 2014)

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), ⁶ as the chief employer of all Nigerian Military personnel, is the funds’ administrator and is bound by the provisions of the Nigeria Pensions Reform Act. Finally, the Nigerian Army provides a yearly scholarship for children between 6 and 18 in primary, secondary, and tertiary schools/institutions. The Administrative policy of the Nigerian Army sets the age of commencement and termination of the Nigerian Army Scholarship. As of the time of conducting the fieldwork, the yearly amounts for the scholarships are N75 000 (approximately $183.00), N125 000 (approximately $305.09), and N300 000 ($732.54) for primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions, respectively. ⁷

As stated earlier, the Nigerian military provides statutory benefits to NOKs of soldiers when they die in combat and on active duty. However, the payment of these benefits is contingent upon a litany of roles and duties expected of NOKs that add to the bureaucratic challenges they experience accessing these funds. Furthermore, claiming these benefits differs from that of Western militaries, where NOKs are assigned standby casualty assistance officers who provide administrative assistance with the documentation needed for claiming the benefits (Cawkill, 2010). The absence of this form of support in the Nigerian military creates the feeling among military widows that the military is an uncaring institution.

Accessing Benefits and Entitlements in the Nigerian Military

In Nigeria, NOKs of deceased soldiers are obligated to provide the necessary documentation when trying to claim any of the above-listed benefits in the case of wartime death. The documents include, but are not limited to, the following: Part 2 Order, ⁸ Letter of Introduction of NOK from the last Unit, Original copies of the death certificate, condolence letter provided by the Nigerian military, and the notification of casualty (NOTICAS) document. These documents are presented to the NOK regardless of the form of relationship with the deceased. Also, NOKs who are not widows of the deceased are mandated to come with the spouse of the deceased soldier to initiate the claims process. If the deceased soldier was not married, and a surviving sibling is the NOK, they are mandated to come along with either parent of the deceased soldier. When trying to claim the scholarship benefit for a child or children, the NOK, that is, the widow, would present the school admission letter of the child, birth certificate, and other educational credentials as determined by the Army. The Army authorities would conduct due diligence and verify the claims presented by the claimants. ⁹

The NOKs must follow up with other units, such as the Army Records, the Pay Office, and other respective offices, as necessary. The entitlements are paid at different levels of the military bureaucracy, and there are different procedures for claiming the benefits. For instance, the processing and payment of burial expenses and the NAWIS are usually done at the deceased’s mother (military) unit. ¹⁰ Other payments like death benefits, gratuities, and educational scholarship scholarships are made at the central headquarters of the Nigerian Army and the Military Pensions Board (MPB), respectively. In addition to these statutory benefits, other financial incentives are given to widows/or families of deceased to compensate for their losses. These monies may be given by State governors and corporate philanthropists. Likewise, military authorities and serving course-mates of the deceased soldiers provide material gifts and food packs to support the welfare of soldiers’ widows. ¹¹ These are announced at commemoration ceremonies, like the Armed Forces Remembrance Day (AFRD), the Nigerian Army Day Celebration (NADCEL), and other social military events.

Nigerian Military Widows Experiences in Accessing Benefits and Entitlements

Despite these extensive benefits, Nigerian military widows face many difficulties accessing the benefits of their late husbands. These difficulties are categorized under three themes: the Absence or Lack of Clear Guidelines on the Benefits Process, Incomplete Benefits payments, and Accessing Educational Sponsorships.

Absence or Lack of Clear Guidelines on the Benefits Process

Discussions with participants revealed that there are many difficulties with administering benefits for military widows of deceased soldiers in the Nigerian Army. A major finding in this regard is the centralization of the benefits process. This was stated by widows and serving and retired military officers who participated in the study. A military officer in charge of welfare at the Nigeria Army Headquarters, Abuja, admitted that the “over-centralization of the process has caused unnecessary bureaucracy.” He mentioned that while the centralization was for oversight purposes, the Nigerian military needs to decentralize and improve the benefits claim procedures. Women spoke of the difficulties in processing the benefits and navigating the military bureaucracy, with no clear guidelines on accessing the benefits. Often, they were left with having to do the administrative paperwork themselves, which was the military unit’s responsibility, as expressed by a participant:

We do all the findings. It will interest you to know that there are women who do not know the existence of some of the packages, which is even their right, and for some of us, it is because we are literate. From what we know, some people do not know how to start. Ideally, the unit is supposed to take it upon itself to ensure that the next of kin is captured and that the next of kin gets the entitlement, but it is not like that in practice; one has to keep calling them, keep travelling up and down and many things can go wrong when one contacts them sometimes, they will send a not completely signed document. It is insulting, but I think we are used to being insulted in this country, so it is normal. ¹²

The above quote reveals the intricate difficulties widows go through in accessing the benefits due to them and the lack of organizational support. The barriers faced by the women are partially due in part to the centralized nature of the Nigerian Army bureaucracy and the absence of a support and advocacy structure that provides them with the necessary information on how to process their entitlements, as it is done in other developed militaries (Cawkill, 2010; MoD, 2015; Vinitzky-Seroussi & Ben-Ari, 2000). Several factors affect the payment of these benefits, some related to the specific nature of the Boko Haram war and the delays in reporting deaths by the responsible unit (Ajala, 2022; Oriola, 2021). This was the reason given by one of the participants for her delayed payments. According to her,

In my case, the gratuity was paid after two years and two months. It was that long because it happened in 2013, and then, the Boko Haram issue was so hot that they had to turn off communication networks in Yobe state, Northeast Nigeria. So, as it is, you will deal with the last unit your husband worked with before he died. Moreover, even if one had gone to the Army Headquarters (i.e., Abuja), they would tell you that the last Unit had to initiate. It (the gratuity) was paid after two years and two months. The group life was paid in December 2017, four years later. ¹³

Another significant issue is the lengthy delays in the bureaucratic process. As the payments of benefits begin from the last unit of the deceased soldier, there are often extended periods before the widows receive the financial support they need. For instance, if the deceased belonged to the Infantry Corps, the processing would begin from his last unit where he was posted, then to the supervising (Infantry) headquarters, and onwards to the command headquarters for final processing and eventual payment. This “seemingly” seamless procedure becomes complicated when the unit cannot establish a soldier’s casualty status due to the abovementioned reasons.

Another challenge the women encounter is the lack of competence and/or dereliction of duties of military officials in carrying out administrative duties that concern the payout of benefits. Some of the widows interviewed alleged that military officials neglect their duties or deliberately cause delays that would thwart their efforts in getting their entitlements. The participant’s experience below explains how inefficiency from military officials might affect the processing of benefits. According to the participant:

I think why it took so long for me to get my benefits because the unit (my husband’s last unit) did not send any documents. A course mate ¹⁴ that lost her brother about the same time called me and asked me, “Madam, how far you done come Abuja? (meaning: have you come to Abuja) I said no. She said that somebody called her and that she had to go to Nigerian Army Records in Lokoja and update her late brother’s records that she was coming from there. She gave me the Chief clerk’s number. I called him, and he asked what my husband’s name was. I told him. He checked, and he was like, there is no document from his unit- not even a death certificate or NOTICAS (Notification of Casualty) that he is dead. So, automatically, it is assumed that my husband is still alive and serving. So, there was nothing to record.

The experience of this participant demonstrates how the neglect of official duties regarding notifying appropriate official authorities can have implications for accessing death benefits at the right time. This is typically a problem when there is no evidence of death. She then went on to narrate how she braved all odds and hurdles to ensure her late husband’s death was duly recorded. She narrated her experience, saying:

So, during the COVID-19 lockdown, I had to travel to Lokoja and took some of my documents –the NOTICAS, death certificate, condolence letter, birth certificate of next of kin, letter of introduction, affidavit. We needed four copies and seven passports of me, my children, and my late husband. I had to pay for the documents to be posted to the pay office in Lagos. If I had not gone to update those documents, I would still have thought everything was okay. So, the fault is from his unit. They did not send anything. ¹⁵

The experience of the above participant shows how widows are affected by negligence and dereliction of duties within the military hierarchy. In some other instances where the military unit is not complicit, other departments within the military bureaucracy are also implicated, as these cases cut across the various levels of the administration in diverse ways. Sharing her experience below, the participant stated she got her burial allowance payment five years after the death of her husband, even though they had paid other benefits. She explained:

I went to Abuja in July 2019 and complained that I did not get the gratuity and burial expenses. I was asked to go to the pension board for the gratuity, and they oversee it. They said our files did not arrive at their office when I arrived. I called the 212 Battalion office here and explained that I am in Abuja now, and they said our files are not there yet. They said if our files are not there, how was I then paid the life insurance? I told them that was what we were told. When I returned here, I returned and complained; they then requested my husband’s documents (NOTIKAS, my husband’s and the NOK passport, and death certificate), which they sent again. It was only then that they sent me the burial allowance. It only remains the gratuity. ¹⁶

As the conversation above showed, this participant had to begin the process of reapplying for a particular payment afresh, as the different offices involved could not provide any justifiable reason for the non-payment of the burial allowance, which ordinarily ought to have been paid before the rest. To mitigate or overcome these challenges, the women resort to using their social networks or connections with senior officers to intervene, as explained in the quote below by a military widow:

I already had my late death certificate, but I needed the condolence letter to start processing the benefits, but there was nothing. I called the Chief Clerk and a Colonel whom my late husband served in his Unit for assistance. I called him and told him I had not collected my condolence letter. He said no. So, when he called the persons in charge, he found out that they typed it but had not sent it for over three (3) months. He was apologetic and asked me to come to Lagos to collect it. ¹⁷

The use of senior officers and other military colleagues of their late husbands to bypass the bureaucratic gridlocks was a common strategy used by widows of commissioned officers, who use their familial or patronage connections within the military hierarchy. These patronage networks are typically based on ethnicity, religion, and the subordinate status of the recipient to the patron, and they work in largely informal ways, for instance—through private phone calls to the patron, as explained above. These actions, which can be described as a form of personalized care that the widows receive from high-ranking officers, unwittingly reify the rank–status dichotomy prevalent in military institutions, as widows with higher connections can use their access, to the exclusion of lower-ranked widows or widows of non-commissioned officers. This clearly shows the presence of neo-patrimonial practices in the Nigerian military and how it impedes the running of the bureaucratic structure and the delivery of benefits to the widows. Other delays may also arise from the need to settle outstanding payments, ascertain assets and liabilities of deceased personnel (where necessary), and other (un)avoidable reasons, such as routine work transfer of clerical personnel, etc.

Less privileged widows without the social connections to facilitate swift payments of their entitlements risk being sexually exploited by military officials managing the benefits administration process. Their socially and economically vulnerable statuses, due to non-payment of their benefits, are taken advantage of through sexual exploitation and harassment within the military community. Women are often propositioned for sex by senior NCOs and officers in exchange for swift processing and payments of their late husband’s benefits. Explaining the challenges military widows face, one participant mentioned that:

Some widows in the Barracks are not working, and soldiers are taking advantage of them in the name of help. They will say they want to help you so they will pay your money quickly. One would say give me your phone number, anytime I will get in touch with you. Some of them will say come and see me. If you do not agree to sleep with them, some of these big men will just delay your money. Some are officers, and some are warrant officers. ¹⁸

Similarly, another woman expanded on her sense of helplessness and having to deal with sexual advances by officers. She said,

This is what some of the widows are undergoing in these Barracks. Some of them (soldiers) will take advantage of you because you are helpless. Nobody can help you collect all your husband’s benefits. They want to use that advantage to sleep with you before they will help you. Let the government help us so we have something to do even though they did not pay the money quickly. At least that will hold us down pending when they will pay their money (See Note 18).

As the quote above shows, Nigerian military widows experience the demeaning effects of sexual exploitation in accessing their benefits. Soldiers and Officers sometimes proposition them to sleep with them in exchange for swift processing of their benefits. Sex for benefits is a lesser-known aspect of the experience of military widows in Nigeria. This topic is not widely discussed in public or in the media, largely due to the shame and stigma these widows may face in a patriarchal society, like Nigeria. One participant mentioned that this practice is common, brazen, and rampant. According to her,

It is rampant. Some people keep quiet because they do not want to bring people out. Some of them are married people, and they know your husband when he was alive, yet they will want to take advantage of you.

These instances reveal the vulnerable status of the widows and the various forms of sexual harassment they have to confront. This creates a dangerous and exploitative situation where these vulnerable women are forced to compromise their physical and emotional well-being to meet their basic needs. When access to their benefits is tied to sexual exploitation, this erodes trust in the military and undermines the integrity of social safety nets.

Instances of sexual exploitation are also experienced by widows in other patriarchal societies. A 2016 study on military widows in Sri Lanka found that nearly half experienced some form of sexual harassment, including sexual bribery. However, this is under-reported due to fear of stigmatization (Costa & Najab, 2020). Similarly, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it is reported that Commanders of army units exploit the vulnerability of war widows by demanding sexual favors or a fraction of their payments in exchange for administrative assistance on their benefits (Baaz & Verweijen, 2016). Even when they eventually obtain payments, they face a retinue of other problems related to their compensation and loss of benefits, such as housing benefits.

Loss of Benefits

Often, when they are eventually compensated, payments are not paid sequentially, and there is no exact format or duration in which the money would be paid. ¹⁹ Almost all the widows interviewed had payments outstanding, were short-changed, or paid late. Most women interviewed were waiting for one benefit or the other, and some had waited for years before payment was received. For example, one widow mentioned that she presented her recent bank statement of account as proof of non-payment when she had issues with the finance unit of her late husband’s office over the payment of the burial allowance. Another said she received the life insurance payout without the gratuity and was told to “regard herself lucky to have gotten the group life insurance first” (See Note 18).

The difficulties of getting the group life insurance payout, which is the most significant payment, are compounded by three factors: the problem between the Nigerian Army and the Insurance Company, the absence of an exact time frame for its payment, and the lack of communication. For example, when asked by journalists when the insurance payment would be made, the Nigerian Army spokesperson was vague, saying, “Our (the military) own is to process the payment, and once this is done, they (beneficiaries) would be invited to pick up the cheques” (Adeniji & Adepegba, 2021). Although the identity of this insurance company is unknown, media reports have highlighted the unpaid insurance claims and the non-payment of insurance premiums by the Nigerian Army (Adeniji & Adepegba, 2021; Taiwo-Obalonye, 2021).

Some widows have disputed the non-payment of premiums by the Nigerian Army as one of the reasons why they have not been paid their insurance claims, as the process of life insurance is a statutory obligation for employers, and the Nigerian Army, as their insurer, is obligated to pay the widows. However, there was confusion around the payment of the insurance and whether this is paid by the government rather than the Army, even though the Army must make sure that this is paid on behalf of the entire Armed Forces steered by the DHQ. A participant mentioned it is the Army’s responsibility to advocate on their behalf and ensure the appropriate government department processes the insurance payment. ²⁰ This explainer by the participant aptly speaks to the need for large organizations, like militaries, to create conditions that would facilitate caring.

The difficulty of accessing benefits is further complicated as the women must move out of the barracks upon the death of their husbands. They find it more convenient to remain in the barracks, as they can get the correct information and pursue their benefits. A widow was told to leave the barracks and said:

I managed inside the Barracks, but some situations occurred in January 2020. The commanding officer said all the widows must leave the barracks. And I told him we cannot just leave without paying because they still owe us some money. If they are to pay us, that money is roughly N3 million naira (approx. $7,265.85). At least that money will purchase a house as the previous payment was N2m plus ($4,844.4). I bought a plot of land, but the balance is insufficient to complete the building. I explained that if the insurance comes, I will use it and finish it. He said he does not know anything about the insurance, so long as we (the Army) have paid you the benefit, you must leave the Barracks. ²¹

The loss of military housing and connection to the broader military community is part of the dilemmas military widows face (Harrington-LaMorie & McDevitt-Murphy, 2011; Steen & Asaro, 2006). In Nigeria, widows who remain in the barracks due to the non-payment of these benefits are often threatened with eviction. When they resist, they (the women) are reminded by officials that the Army does not owe them; instead, it is the insurance company or the DHQ.

These responses, which demonstrate the enormous difficulties the widows face in receiving their benefits and dealing with the Nigerian Army bureaucracy, also demonstrate the perception of the Nigerian military as being a non-caring institution. These challenges extend to how the women can access the sponsorship payments for their children.

Accessing Educational Sponsorships

As indicated, the Nigerian Army provides educational sponsorships to families of deceased personnel. Like the death benefits, these payments are thwarted by administrative bottlenecks, and widows engage in a lengthy process to obtain and renew the scholarships. Widows must undergo yearly scholarship screening and present documented evidence regarding how they utilize the scholarship funds. The evidence includes the child’s academic results, admission letters, etc. While this may ensure they use the funds appropriately, the time used to verify their authenticities affects the children’s education, as these payments are often delayed. In other cases, the women do not get the complete payments of their children’s sponsorship fees or may not get any payment. Some women with a maximum number of four kids in the sponsorship scheme lamented the difficulties in getting the payments for all the children, even when eligible. Discussions with the women suggest that the process is fraught with unexplainable practices to frustrate them into relinquishing the benefits.

Another major challenge faced was the long trips they embarked on (for documentation and verification) when traveling to the Army headquarters in Abuja. These risky journeys do not guarantee the payments and expose the women to dangers when traveling by road. One woman recalled a kidnapping incident that involved a widow who traveled for one of the documentation and verification exercises. ²² Another problem is the age limit of scholarships. The beneficiary age of six years does not consider the current economic realities of caring for children from nursery or pre-school. Explaining this, a military widow said that:

Regarding sponsorship, they kept saying the child must be six years old before they take up sponsorship, but my argument is, why six years? You do not expect my child to reach five years or six years before taking responsibility for what the father would have done gladly. And then the privilege they are supposed to enjoy from the father, they did not enjoy it. So, I think the first thing is that you should pay his school fees once a child is ready to go to school; so, they need to start from nursery school, which is an average of three years. When you talk, they keep telling you it is the policy. Well, I am like things change. It is people that make these policies. . . ²³

The quote explains the challenges of onboarding children on the sponsorship program and its impact on early child development. Likewise, the termination age of 18 or 21 does not consider the difficulties of getting admitted into Nigerian tertiary institutions. For instance, a child should expectedly be in a tertiary institution on or before 18 and graduate by age 21. Other reasons, such as a change in school or a child’s surpassing the age required for a particular class, may prevent them from receiving their payments.

Irrespective of their challenges, it is necessary to state that women are not a helpless demographic within the Nigerian military community. They have an established association known as the Nigerian Military Widows Association (MIWA). The Association was established in 2016 to support women and challenge and mediate access to benefits and entitlements within the Nigerian military, where necessary. The Association has more than 5,000 members, and membership is voluntary. While many participants are familiar with the association, it is unclear how effective it is, particularly in helping widows receive delayed benefits. Although the association has worked with military authorities to ensure prompt payment of benefits, it has not consistently met widows’ expectations in assisting with delayed benefits, as some participants mentioned. This inconsistency is partly due to bureaucratic challenges in dealing with the military institution and its enduring relationship with the military.

Conclusion

This study examined the caring attributes of the Nigerian military (Army) regarding how it has fulfilled its responsibilities toward the widows of its soldiers who died in the war against Boko Haram. The findings support the claim that the Nigerian Army is a non-caring institution, demonstrated by the dysfunctionality of the military bureaucracy and the unprofessional conduct of officers dealing with the welfare benefits of the military widows. The burdensome bureaucratic protocols beginning from the unit level (battalion) to the supervising headquarters (brigade/division) and eventually to the command headquarters—Department of Army Administration, Nigerian Army (DOAA, NA) testifies to this. The claims need to be vetted at each of these levels, and the failures of administrative officials to effectively discharge their responsibilities cause significant delays in processing the entitlements. The concentration of these administrative processes in the Nigerian Army Headquarters, Abuja, has created a dysfunctional and defective system that engenders more difficulties than necessary in administering these benefits.

These dysfunctionalities have impeded service delivery to these women, and no support units within the bureaucracy provide the required information on how to claim their benefits and seek redress where necessary. This aspect can be improved by setting up dedicated desks or individual offices within the bureaucracy to provide all necessary guidelines, support, and feedback on claiming and processing benefits. This would provide a more personalized relational approach to dealing with the needs of military widows on a case-by-case basis. This approach would help cultivate a sense of care and support among the families and the broader institution.

Besides this, there is the need to deal with the corruption of military officers that undermines the professionalism of the military and trust in the institution. As shown in the article, women deal with corrupt and inefficient military officials who obstruct the payment of their entitlements through informal means, and those who are more privileged gain access through patronage networks. In addition to this is the sexual exploitation faced by military widows in accessing their benefits. While the cases mentioned here are a minute fraction, they represent a larger population of similarly affected women. As such, Nigerian military authorities need to address these issues and create avenues for redress for affected women.

As the experiences in this article highlight, the benefits of military service are generally not commensurate with the risks incurred by the servicemen and the widows and families they leave behind. Furthermore, the focus on winning the war has taken precedence over the moral and social obligation to support the families of fallen soldiers. This is due to the political dynamics of the conflict and the strained resources of the Nigerian military, which has troops deployed in multiple areas, all facing the risk of wartime casualties. This situation highlights a discrepancy between the dedication to victory in the war and the support provided to the families of soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

This has contributed to its image as a non-caring institution, affecting the loyalty and commitment of soldiers and the support of military families. The consequences of a military failing to look after the families of killed soldiers have widespread implications. For families, especially widows, it brings about severe financial hardship and emotional trauma. When families lose trust and respect for the institution, this affects the morale of serving soldiers, who fear their families will not be cared for in the event of their death. The reputation as a non-caring institution may lead to recruitment and retention problems.

Not surprisingly, military wives have protested the deployment of their husbands in the fight against Boko Haram and have become less willing to support deployments, knowing that the military does not value their well-being. The public image and reputation of the military are further harmed when families or civil society organizations, like the Military Widows Association, decide to pursue legal action against the military for failing to provide promised benefits and institutional care to which they are entitled. These negative consequences impact the military families and society, which may become less supportive and willing to serve their country due to these failures.