Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (rtd), on Thursday issued a firm nationwide directive, ordering military personnel to engage armed bandits instantly and decisively—without waiting for further instructions.
Speaking after formally assuming office in Abuja, the retired Chief of Defence Staff said the Armed Forces must abandon any hesitation that endangers lives, insisting that troops must act swiftly and fearlessly when confronting criminal groups.
“The era of waiting for orders in the face of danger is over,” Musa declared. “Any soldier who says he is waiting for orders in the face of danger is a coward. No Nigerian should die because security failed to act when it mattered most.”
In his first major policy announcement, Musa unveiled plans to withdraw soldiers from road checkpoints nationwide and redeploy them to active conflict theatres. According to him, police officers and operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) will immediately take over checkpoint operations.
The restructuring, he explained, will allow the military to focus on combating banditry, terrorism, kidnapping, and other high-risk threats while enabling safer access for farmers and rural communities struggling under recurrent attacks.
“Our focus is to restore peace. We will not allow criminals to dictate the pace. We are going after them immediately,” the minister said, assuring Nigerians that the military would now take a more proactive, offensive, and intelligence-driven approach.
Musa’s directives come at a time of escalating insecurity in the North-West and North-Central regions, where bandit attacks, road ambushes, and assaults on farmlands have disrupted livelihoods and deepened humanitarian challenges.
He reaffirmed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to overhauling the national security architecture, strengthening troop morale, and restoring public confidence in the government’s ability to secure lives and property.
