The of Representatives on Wednesday asked the Nigerian Army Council to discontinue the automatic merger of service years for officers commissioned through the Short Service Combatant Commission (SSCC), Direct Short Service Commission (DSSC), and Direct Regular Commission (DRC), saying such merger should be made optional and applicable only upon written request for pension computation purposes.

In a resolution following a motion sponsored by Zakaria Dauda Nyampa (APC, Adamawa), the House also asked the Armed Forces Council to harmonise service reckonability across the Army, Navy, and Air Force to ensure fairness, cohesion, and doctrinal uniformity.

The House asked the Chief of Army Staff to take necessary measures to conduct sensitisation and issue transitional guidelines to ensure clarity and prevent misinterpretation, while the Nigerian Army Council should undertake legal and administrative reviews to forestall possible litigations arising from the retroactive application of the policy.

The House directs it Committee on Army to conduct thorough oversight for the protection of the rights, welfare, and career progression of officers in the Nigerian Army, while ensuring consistency with Armed Forces regulations and best practices.

Moving the motion, Nyampa drew attention of members to the Nigerian Army’s current policy automatically merges the years of service of soldiers commissioned through Short Service Combatant Commission (SSCC), Direct Short Service Commission (DSSC), and Direct Regular Commission (DRC).

According to him, this policy counts the years served by such officers as soldiers, including periods spent in university education or waiting for commissioning, as part of their total reckonable service.

He alleged that the policy is inconsistent with the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service (HTACOS), 2017 (Revised) which defines an officer’s military service as “a period of unbroken service in the Armed Forces of Nigeria from the date of commission to the date of retirement”, and violates the Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation and principles of contractual fairness as enshrined in Sections 7 and 91 of the Labour Act (Cap L1, LFN 2004).

He said the automatic merger policy is discriminatory, undermines morale and cohesion within the officer corps, accelerates the retirement of experienced personnel, creates manpower gaps, increases recruitment costs, erodes institutional memory, and deviates from international best practices. (The Nation)