To Nigeria's Retired Generals: A Nation Bleeding Demands More Than Silence

From PSJ UK

To start with, the death of retired Major General Rabe Abubakar in captivity is not merely a personal tragedy, but a national indictment.

PSJ UK extends its deepest condolences to the family, friends, colleagues, and comrades of the late General. From the team across the world, we mourn a man who dedicated a significant part of his life to the defence of Nigeria, only to spend his final days in the custody of armed criminals operating within Nigerian territory.

To Military Generals:

His death should disturb every Nigerian. It should especially disturb those who once wore the uniform and carried the responsibility of defending this nation.

Major General Rabe Abubakar's death is occurring against a troubling backdrop. Since late 2025 and into 2026, Nigeria has witnessed the loss of several senior military commanders in active service through terrorist attacks, insurgent operations, and bandit violence. Lieutenant Colonels, Colonels, and a Brigadier General have all paid the ultimate price in the line of duty. The message from these attacks is unmistakable: those who threaten Nigeria are becoming increasingly bold, increasingly organised, and increasingly confident.

A question directed respectfully but firmly to Nigeria's retired military elite.

What Are You Doing To Preserve Nigeria?

Many of you commanded battalions, brigades, divisions, and national operations. You studied warfare, intelligence, strategy, logistics, and national security. You spent decades understanding the threats confronting the Nigerian state.

Today, Nigeria faces one of the gravest security crises in its history.

In that, children are abducted from classrooms, farmers abandon their lands, communities pay taxes to criminal groups, military formations are attacked, and now, even retired generals are not spared.

At what point does silence become complicity?

Where are the collective voices of retired commanders when communities are overrun by violence?

Where are the strategic interventions, policy proposals, independent security assessments, and national conversations led by those who once carried the burden of command?

If the current trajectory continues, what does the future of Nigeria look like from your vantage point?

These questions are not asked out of disrespect. They are asked because experience carries responsibility.

A Call To National Service Beyond Uniform

Retirement should not mean withdrawal from the nation's most pressing challenge.

Nigeria needs its retired military leaders now more than ever.

We call on former service chiefs, retired generals, and senior military veterans to convene a National Security Council of Elders independent of politics and partisan interests. The country deserves honest assessments from those who understand both the strengths and weaknesses of its security architecture.

We call on retired commanders to publicly advocate urgent reforms in intelligence gathering, community security, border management, military welfare, and rapid-response operations.

We call on them to mentor a new generation of security leaders capable of responding to twenty-first-century threats.

Most importantly, we call on them to use their moral authority to demand accountability wherever it is lacking.

History Will Ask Questions

History will not only ask what terrorists did to Nigeria.

History will ask what those with knowledge, experience, and influence did while the nation bled.

The death of Major General Rabe Abubakar must not become another headline that disappears from public memory. It should become a turning point.

Nigeria cannot afford to lose its citizens, its soldiers, its teachers, its children, and now its retired generals while those capable of shaping solutions remain spectators.

The nation is calling.

The question is whether those who once answered that call in uniform are prepared to answer it once again.