Armed Forces Tired of Insecurity, Want It to End — Defence Minister Musa

…Advocates compulsory military training for all Nigerians for discipline, national security

By Abu Adamu

Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has declared that Nigeria’s Armed Forces are as eager as other Nigerians to see the country’s prolonged security challenges brought to an end, saying troops are tired of fighting and dying in conflicts they desperately want resolved.

Musa said it was therefore painful and demoralising when Nigerians accused the military of deliberately allowing insurgency and other security crises to linger.

The former Chief of Defence Staff, who spoke on the African Leadership Podcast with Ken Giami, said soldiers deployed across the country were fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters who had left their families behind and put their lives on the line in the pursuit of peace.

“Everybody wants peace,” Musa said, rejecting suggestions that the military benefits from the continuation of insecurity.

According to him, no soldier risking his life on the battlefield wants the conflict to continue indefinitely.

“And that’s why sometimes it’s very painful when you see people insulting the military and telling them…we don’t want this to end. Nobody’s dying now, doesn’t want it to end,” he said.

Musa said troops endure rain, dust, sleepless nights, and prolonged separation from their families to keep the country secure, stressing that constant attacks on their motives could damage morale and undermine their ability to perform optimally.

He recalled that for the first 17 years of his marriage, military duties prevented him from spending 30 consecutive days with his family.

“These are the sacrifices that people make. So when you hear people saying, look, what are they doing? It’s really demoralising. And if you demoralise your troops, they can’t give you their best,” he said.

Against this background, the Defence Minister advocated military training for every Nigerian, arguing that exposure to military discipline would strengthen patriotism, endurance, teamwork, and citizens’ appreciation of national security responsibilities.

“If I have my way, every Nigerian should be able to go through military training,” Musa said.

He explained that military training would expose citizens to hardship, including hunger, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, and long-distance movement under difficult conditions, thereby giving them a better understanding of what troops experience while defending the country.

“It will give you a different perspective about life. You will now understand what it means to stay hungry, what it means to walk in days without sleep. It will show you what endurance means,” he said.

Musa said military training would also reinforce the importance of collective responsibility, stressing that security could not be achieved by individuals acting alone.

“No man is an island…you need a team, and the military is a team that works together,” he said.

The minister, however, stressed that defeating insecurity could not be accomplished through military force alone, estimating that kinetic operations constituted only about 25 to 30 per cent of the solution, while roughly 70 per cent required non-kinetic interventions.

According to him, tackling poverty and providing roads, hospitals, schools, jobs, and other basic necessities would address some of the underlying conditions that fuel insecurity.

Musa urged Nigerians to remain patriotic and support security personnel, saying national security ultimately required citizens who believed in the country.

“If you don’t love your country, you can’t defend it,” he said.

He assured Nigerians that the Armed Forces would remain committed to restoring peace across the country and urged troops not to be discouraged by criticism.

“We want Nigeria to be peaceful, as it used to be in the past,” Musa said. “They should not allow anything to discourage them. No matter what it is, they’re doing a great job, and we’re very proud of them.”