IN SHORT: Online posts allege that the Nigerian army has launched a “landmark promotion initiative”. But the military says the news is false and misleading.
In December 2024, Nigerian president Bola Tinubu approved new harmonised terms and conditions of service for officers and enlisted personnel in the Nigerian armed forces.
The new conditions include guidelines for officer promotions, entitlements and retirement. This means the Nigerian army must comply with this document before any officer can be promoted.
Therefore, many would take interest in an online claim that the army has launched a particularly generous initiative to promote officers.
On 24 February 2025, a post published on Facebook claimed that Lt Gen Olufemi Oluyede, the chief of army staff, had announced a groundbreaking promotion effort to “recognise and reward long-serving commitment and excellence within our ranks”.
The post reads, in part: “Effective immediately, any soldier who has held their current rank on their shoulder for a period of five (5) years or more will be automatically promoted to the next rank, irrespective of their remaining years of service!”
The same claim appeared on Facebook here and here.
But did Oluyede announce this new initiative? We checked.
Fake news
The post doesn’t say when and where the announcement was made. We also couldn’t find the news when we searched the army’s official website.
On 25 February, Maj Gen Onyema Nwachukwu, the director of the army’s public relations unit, told the media that the claim was fake.
“This deliberate misinformation is not only untrue but also calculated to mislead personnel as well as members of the public. Suffice to state that promotion in the Nigerian Army is a structured, merit-based exercise governed by clearly defined statutory regulations and provisions. It is neither arbitrary nor subject to social media speculations,” he said.
The same claim was also posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
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