On Thursday, September 17, wives of 13 officers who died in a military plane crash in 2006 resolved to make a difference. At an event organised by the Regular Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association (RENAOWA), to honour fallens heroes, these women, who rose from the ashes of sudden widowhood to building strong supportive bonds that has kept them thriving in the past 20 years, turned the memorial into a charity outreach with cash, food palliatives and grinding machines distributed to more than 40 widows of deceased soldiers.
THE CRASH THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
On 17 September 2006, a Nigerian Air Force Dornier 228-212 aircraft crashed in Benue State while conveying a delegation of senior army officers to a retreat at the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State. The retreat had been convened under a presidential committee set up by then President Olusegun Obasanjo to reposition the army.
General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division, Maj.-Gen. JO Adesunloye; Army’s Chief of Policy and Plans, Maj.-Gen SO Otubu; Chief of Administration, Maj.-Gen. SM Lemu; GOC 2 Division, Maj.-Gen. AN Bamali; Commandant Nigeria Army Signals, Maj.-Gen. PM Haruna; Chief of Army Standards and Evaluation, Maj.-Gen. JTU Amedu; Commandant Ordinance Corps and Schools, Maj.-Gen. B Duniya; Military Secretary, Maj.-Gen. JO Agbola; Commandant 1 Brigade, Maj.-Gen. YJ Braimah; Coordinator Special Vehicle Plant, Bauchi, Brig-Gen. MB Bawa; Directing Staff Armed Forces Command and Staff College Jaji, Lt. Col NA Mohammed; Pilot, Wing Commander SS Balogun, and Co Pilot, Wing Commander EO Adekunle, all died in the crash that set the country into mourning mood.
Three colonels survived. Obasanjo, then attending the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Singapore, cut short his trip and declared three days of national mourning.
Two decades on, the wives of those officers, including Mrs. Doris Braimah, now a retired Assistant Comptroller-General (ACG) and president of RENAOWA, have gone from grieving spouses to an organised body offering support to younger widows walking the same path they once did alone.
A speech built on two decades of pain
Delivering the anniversary address, Mrs. Braimah told the gathering, which included representatives of the Chief of Defence Staff, service chiefs and senior military commanders, that the day the aircraft went down felt like ‘the sky wept fire’ and ‘the earth swallowed our dreams.’
She recalled the physical weight of grief: an inability to eat, sleep or pray, and moments of doubting her faith and will to continue. But she urged the younger widows in attendance not to let sorrow define their future, warning that prolonged grief carried real health consequences, including depression, hypertension and a weakened immune system, and can isolate a widow from the very children who looked to her for strength.
Braimah offered the newer widows a five-point path she said had guided RENAOWA’s older members: stay close to family and trusted friends; avoid financial commitments beyond one’s income; resist pressure to fund extravagant burial or memorial ceremonies; secure an independent, steady source of income, however modest; and build a life on personal effort and faith rather than on promises from others that might never be fulfilled.
‘Your husband fought for this nation. He gave his life for you and your children. Will you now give up the life he died to protect?’ Braimah asked.
A call for trauma centres
Widow of the late Maj.-Gen. Lemu, Dr Aisha Salihu Lemu, told journalists that the older widows had ‘decided to come together to help the younger ones,’ adding that their shared experience gave them standing to reassure the newer widows that ‘we understand their pains.’
Lemu used the platform to push a wider policy point: that trauma support should not be limited to serving or retired soldiers alone. She argued that the wives of men who have fought to keep the country secure also carry psychological trauma, as do widows, and called on government to establish dedicated trauma or counselling centres for these women. She disclosed that RENAOWA itself was planning to build one to support affected families.
Military leadership lends support
Representing the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Waidi Shaibu, the GOC 81 Division, Maj.-Gen. Adebayo Babalola, acknowledged RENAOWA’s contribution to nation-building, describing the association as a boost to the morale of military widows. Shaibu donated N2 million to the association through his representative, while Babalola personally contributed N1 million.
From grief to giving
The human impact of the gesture was immediate. Eunice, widow of the late Corporal Emmanuel Emike, thanked RENAOWA for responding to an appeal she had made in a time of need. Another beneficiary, Ednah Simon, also expressed gratitude for the support.
One of the donor widows, explaining the group’s decision to act rather than dwell on the anniversary, said about 13 of them had resolved that ‘instead of coming here to cry today, we should take a step forward and affect lives.’
A grinding machine recipient among the beneficiaries said the gift would give her an independent source of income to support her children, adding she was left ‘speechless’ by the gesture.
By the end of the day, more than 40 widows of deceased soldiers had received support, closing out a memorial that organisers said was as much about honouring the fallen as it was about lifting the women they left behind.