Military: Promotion Based on Establishment Vacancies

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, said yesterday the promotion in the military was dependent on establishment vacancies.

Abubakar, who stated this during the decoration ceremony of newly promoted senior officers of the Air Force, told beneficiaries of the exercise that their promotion should translate to additional security for the country.

The Nigerian Air Force last week promoted 99 senior officers as well as decorated 13 new Air Vice Marshals and 35 Air Commodores.

Speaking at the event, Abubakar said the promotion was based on merit, productivity and establishment vacancies.

According to him, “The selection process culminating in promotion is usually a painstaking and exhaustive one. It involves applying stringent criteria for the elevation especially to the prestigious air rank.

“Several qualities and conditions are used to determine an officer’s eligibility for promotion. Merit is certainly top of the list of considerations. However, it does not mean that the officers who were not promoted are not fit, most especially at the higher ranks,” he said, while noting that “the major constraint is that of establishment vacancies. The NAF can only promote what the establishment and managing provision can conveniently accommodate.”

He continued: “Those who have scaled these many hurdles and found themselves in the list of those approved to wear the one end two-star general rank surely have reasons to celebrate.”

The Air Force boss maintained that “in the discharge of our professional responsibilities, the demands on members of the Armed Forces are unique.