The event, celebrated on January 15 each year, honors veterans of World War I and II, as well as the Nigerian Civil War. It is a day set aside for sober reflections on the significance of the armed forces to the country.
While Armed Forces Remembrance Day is celebrated on November 11 every year globally, it is also known as Armistice Day, commemorating the end of the First World War.
In 2024, the name was changed to “Armed Forces Celebration and Remembrance Day.”
This is to celebrate members of the Armed Forces still serving and also remembering the fallen heroes, thus correcting the notion that the day is meant mainly for the fallen heroes.
But with the formal end of the Nigerian Civil War following the surrender of the Biafran secessionists, which was handed over to the then Col. Olusegun Obasanjo (former Head of State and former President of Nigeria 1999-2007) by Philip Effiong of the Biafran Army on January 15, 1970, the date was changed to mark the restoration of Nigeria’s unity.
Do you know that in 2017, the Guards Brigade Cemetery near Murtala Mohammed Way in Abuja was inaugurated as a place for burying active and retired brigade personnel as part of an initiative by retired Gen.Tukur Yusuf Buratai for all army formations to have their unit cemeteries?
Also, 2020 marked the golden jubilee of the war’s end. In the week of that anniversary, the then Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) announced plans by the Federal Government to allocate funds to support the families of fallen soldiers.
The Centre for Memories in Enugu (focused mostly on preserving Igbo history and culture) premiered a documentary on AFRD titled January 15, 1970: Untold Memories from the Nigeria-Biafra War.
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