A military wife, identified as ‘Everything Woman’ on TikTok, has condemned what she calls Nigeria’s growing indifference to the deaths of soldiers following the reported killing of Brigadier Uba in Maiduguri.
In a video shared on Thursday, she said she had spent hours online “waiting to see something that will give me hope,” only to be met with a disturbing silence across the country.
She contrasted the muted response to Brigadier Uba’s death with the past, when fallen soldiers were honoured with communal respect, with towns and states closing in mourning.
“I’ve been online since morning, waiting to see something that will give me hope. So tell me why, till now, everywhere is just quiet like a chicken died? When I was younger, if a soldier fell, communities and even states closed.
“Because 10,000 men would bury that soldier, escort him to his grave. Now, we lose a Brigadier General, and the whole nation is silent as if nothing happened.”
She also criticised military families, the government, and the wider public for their collective silence.
“Even military wives are quiet. If you stay quiet, it will affect you. Our government is quiet.
“As a country, how have we let it get to this point where they kill a Brigadier General and nothing happens? When I saw that man sitting there like a thief, I asked myself, what is the point? What is the point if our men can’t get protection, justice, or vengeance?”
Reflecting on personal sacrifices, she said her only hope was that her husband would complete 35 years of service and return home safely.
“Mr President, as a military wife, my consolation was that after carrying my children alone, attending every antenatal appointment and birth without him, one day he would serve 35 years and come back.
“Every birthday missed, every anniversary celebrated alone, every night slept alone, every responsibility done alone, was because I believed one day I would have him back. That was my consolation.
“So tell me, why does it now seem that he might serve forever, and that shatters my hope? Because he might miss every birthday for nothing. He might just die like a bird.”
