Nigeria’s Defense Minister Christopher Musa has suggested that all Nigerians undergo military training, saying it would give civilians firsthand experience of some of the demands of military service, local news reported.
Speaking on the African Leadership Podcast, Musa cited exhaustion, lack of sleep, and prolonged physical exertion as examples of what participants might encounter.
Military training “will give you a different perspective about life,” Musa said.
“You will now understand what it means to stay hungry and what it means to work in days without sleep,” he added, arguing that such an experience could help explain the demands placed on soldiers to people who insult them or question why military operations continue.
Security Operations and Civilian Casualties
Musa’s remarks come as Nigeria faces multiple security crises.
The military continues to fight a long-running jihadist insurgency in the northeast, while armed gangs carry out attacks and kidnappings in the northwest.
Military operations have also killed civilians.
In May, Amnesty International said a Nigerian airstrike on a market in Zamfara state had killed at least 100 people.
The previous month, more than 200 people were feared dead after military jets struck a market in the northeast while pursuing militants.
In December 2023, two military airstrikes hit a religious gathering in Tudun Biri, a village in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state.
Amnesty International said more than 120 civilians were killed, including people who rushed to help after the first strike.
The victims were buried in two mass graves the next day.
Amnesty called for an independent investigation, saying the military’s conflicting accounts of the strikes “suggest attempts by the authorities to cover-up these grave human rights violations.”
