Senior rank in the Nigerian Army
Lieutenant general
(
Lt Gen
), is the second-highest rank of the
Nigerian Army
and generally it is the highest active rank as the Nigerian army do not have any appointment in the rank of
full general
but in the case of the appointment of
Chief of Defence Staff
, the rank of full general is given (if the chief is appointed from the army and not from the navy or the air force). It is the equivalent of a multinational
three-star rank
.
The rank of lieutenant general is usually held by the
Chief of Army Staff
.
Lieutenant general is a superior rank to
major general
, but subordinate to a
(full) general
. The rank has a
NATO
rank code of
OF-8
, equivalent to a
vice-admiral
in the
Nigerian Navy
and an
air marshal
in the
Nigerian Air Force
(NAF) and the air forces of many
Commonwealth
countries.
The rank insignia is an eagle and a six-pointed star over a crossed sabre and baton.
Usage
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Ordinarily, the lieutenant general rank is usually held by only the
Chief of Army Staff
which implies there is usually only one serving lieutenant general in the
Army
at a time but there have been some occasions where there were more than one lieutenant-general in the Army like the case of Lt-Gen
Jeremiah Useni
, who was the
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister
under General Sani Abacha, while, Lt-Gen
Ishaya Bamaiyi
was the Chief of Army Staff. Also, there was the case of Lt-Gen
Abel Akale
, who was the
Commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy
(NDA), Kaduna, at the time Lt-Gen
Martin Luther Agwai
was the Chief of Army Staff. Maj-Gen
Chikadibia Isaac Obiakor
was also promoted to Lt-Gen and made Commander of United Nations (UN) Peace Keeping Operations while Lt-Gen Agwai was still Army Chief in December 2005.
[1]
[2]
The most recent case was that of the promotion of Maj-Gen
Lamidi Adeosun
to the rank of lieutenant general in July 2019 while Lt-Gen
Tukur Buratai
was still Army Chief.
[3]
During the
military rule
, the
Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters
and the
Chief of General Staff
(titles accorded to the deputy head of state and de facto
vice president
under different regimes) usually held a
three-star rank
like in the cases of Lt-Gens
Olusegun Obasanjo
and
Oladipo Diya
, both of whom never served as the Chief of Army Staff.
List of Nigerian Army Lieutenant generals
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Since 1960, 33 officers have attained this rank.
[
citation needed
]
Among them, one officer, (
Olusegun Obasanjo
) attained this rank while he was
Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters
(de facto vice president), another officer, (
Oladipo Diya
) attained this rank before becoming
Chief of General Staff
(de facto
vice president
), 19 served as the
Chief of Army Staff
, 5 of them (
Ipoola Alani Akinrinade
,
Gibson Sanda Jalo
,
Domkat Yah Bali
,
Sani Abacha
and
Oladipo Diya
) served as
Chief of Defence Staff
while holding this rank, Bali and Abacha were later promoted to the rank of
full General
. 6 of them (
Ipoola Alani Akinrinade
,
Gibson Sanda Jalo
,
Sani Abacha
,
Alexander Ogomudia
,
Martin Luther Agwai
and
Owoye Andrew Azazi
) served in both positions.
See also
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References
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