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| General Christopher Musa |
Every Nigerian should learn basic combat skills to protect themselves, the country’s top military officer told a television audience this week. The Chief of Defence Staff urged citizens to treat self-defence like any other everyday skill, and to make unarmed combat, swimming and driving part of ordinary life.
General Christopher Musa made the point as a guest on a national current-affairs programme, where he framed self-defence training as a practical, low-cost way to reduce harm when state forces cannot reach people fast enough. He said such training sits alongside other survival skills and that it should be taught at scale, not left to chance.
On the same programme, the defence chief suggested that the youth service system should carry some of this burden. He argued the national orientation for new graduates should include unarmed combat and situational awareness training, and he noted that current service formats offer little time for practical drills. Those comments were offered as part of a wider call to strengthen basic security skills for young people.
Musa also outlined operational limits that shape the way citizens experience security on the ground. He told the programme that bad roads, poor communications and rough terrain slow military reaction times, and that in many attacks gunmen can hit and vanish before reinforcements arrive. He warned these gaps leave ordinary people exposed while forces move to contain threats.
The defence chief went on to warn about how terror groups raise funds and the cross-border reach of some criminal networks. He said tracking finance that flows through mineral trade and international channels is complex, and that this makes the fight both legal and logistical as well as military. He linked those points to the need for stronger community awareness and practical personal skills.
The call comes amid hard, recent data that show violence and kidnappings remain a widespread threat across the country. The National Human Rights Commission dashboard and its summary reports show thousands of killings and kidnappings recorded over a recent 15-month span, with clusters of attacks in several geo-political zones. That official monitoring has tracked sharp rises in both lethal attacks and abductions in some months this year.
Independent observers and regional analysts report a similar picture. Human rights monitors and crisis-tracking organisations say insurgent and criminal groups continue to carry out mass attacks, extortion and targeted kidnappings in many states, adding pressure to already stretched security forces and local communities. Reports note that the first half of this year saw a worrying uptick in deaths tied to banditry and insurgency across multiple regions.
Security agencies and civic groups have long stressed that preventing violence requires both state action and local resilience. Musa’s suggestion to extend practical training through national institutions followed that line of thought, as he argued citizens can gain time and options by learning to spot threats and to protect themselves in urgent moments. He pointed to models where basic safety training is woven into public life as a means to reduce harm.
The defence chief singled out the National Youth Service Corps as a logical place for practical drills, saying the scheme in its current, shortened form offers little room for hands-on skills. He suggested broadening the service’s curriculum to include basic unarmed defence and situational awareness so graduates leave with practical, day-to-day survival tools. Those remarks followed his view that survival skills should be treated like standard life skills many families already teach in other forms.
Across civil society, reactions to calls for widespread self-defence training tend to be mixed and measured, with some groups welcoming practical safety lessons while others flag legal limits and the risk of escalation if training is poorly regulated. Government agencies, rights groups and community leaders weigh whether formal programmes could be rolled out safely, and who would certify instructors and monitor standards. At present there is no single, nationwide plan to provide structured combat training to civilians.
Musa’s wider remarks also touched on counter-terror operations and recent arrests that the military regards as wins. He noted moves against known terror financiers and the arrest and prosecution of certain militant figures abroad, and he said coordinated operations by air and land forces have produced tangible results in some cases. The defence chief framed those points within a broader push for inter-agency and regional cooperation.
The programme exchange put practical safety measures next to the larger failures and limits that affect response times, as the defence chief described it. He said the reality of rough road networks and scarce communication links means troops cannot always get to attacks before assailants leave, which creates a strong case for citizens to have basic self-help options when danger appears.
Official monitoring and non-government reports show that violence takes different forms in different areas, from farm raids and mass shootings in parts of the central region, to insurgent actions in the northeast and targeted kidnappings elsewhere. Data compiled by national human rights bodies and international monitors point to hot spots where the state presence is thin and civilian harm is high. Those figures framed the defence chief’s remarks as part of a larger national debate about how to protect communities.
Security officials and community leaders face a practical question: who trains civilians, and how will that training avoid making harm worse? Musa’s comments landed in that policy space, urging a mix of public education, compulsory basic skills for some programmes, and stronger community watchfulness, rather than arming civilians or creating parallel forces. The defence chief stressed that security remains the shared duty of government and society.
The televised conversation ended with the defence chief underlining the need for situational awareness: he urged people to be alert to strange behaviour and to understand how to move safely if threatened. His view was that survival skills are ordinary things learned in many places and that Nigeria should adopt a similar approach, within legal and institutional guardrails.