Why is President forcing military women back into the kitchen?

On Thursday, November 9, 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari reconvened and inaugurated the Armed Forces Council.

During his subsequent meeting with the council, the president ratified the National Defence Policy 2017 (Revised); Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service Officers 2017, and also inaugurated the Harmonised Terms and Condition of Service for Soldiers/Rating/Airmen (Revised), among others.According to a statement signed by Col. Tukur Gusau, Public Relations Officer to Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, the ratifications were deemed necessary to contend with contemporary security challenges and the enhancement of welfare, command, discipline and administration of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

He said "It (the council) reviewed terms and conditions of service for officers and soldiers. It reviewed some of the retirement benefits for officers and soldiers including Defence Policy which has been obsolete since 2006 that we reviewed and discussed and reached a conclusion on them."

What Col. Gusau failed to disclose, deliberately or in error, is the recommendation 19 of the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

According to a report by The Punch on Monday, November 13, the recommendation read, "Phase out the training of female regular combatant cadets."Since the creation of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in 1964, only male officers were trained as combatants until 2011 when then-President Goodluck Jonathan issued a presidential directive that females interested in becoming combatant officers for the Nigerian armed forces should henceforth be admitted into the NDA.

Before that directive was issued, women in the military had been limited to non-combat duties which statutorily limited their career path as they couldn't aspire to the highest echelon of the country's military force.