By Ayobami Okerinde
The Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has proposed that every Nigerian should undergo military training to better understand the demands and sacrifices involved in protecting the country.
Musa stated this on the African Leadership Podcast with Ken Giami, released on Monday.
According to him, military training exposes people to hunger, exhaustion, physical strain and other hardships that can give them a different understanding of life and the responsibilities of protecting the nation.
“Every Nigerian should be able to go through military training. It will give you a different perspective about life. You will now understand what it means to stay hungry and what it means to work in days without sleep,” Musa said.
“It will show you what endurance means when you walk kilometres and you are tired but you still need to keep on going. You have not eaten; you have not taken one because of the nature of the thing and because you are doing it to protect,” he added.
Musa said the sacrifices made by soldiers were comparable to the biblical principle of giving one’s life for another.
“And that’s exactly what the military men are doing, putting their lives at stake for their country to move around,” he said.
The former Chief of Defence Staff also appealed to Nigerians to understand that soldiers are members of families who leave their loved ones behind while carrying out their duties.
“And so that’s why sometimes it’s very painful when you see people insulting the military and telling them they don’t need it or we don’t want this to end. Nobody’s dying now, and they don’t want it to end,” he said.
“Everybody wants peace, and that is important, so we want them to understand soldiers are fathers, brothers and sisters of people. They’ve families they’ve left behind, staying in the weather, rain, dust, night or day, staying there to ensure the country is secured,” he said.
Musa also linked increased infiltration across Nigeria’s borders to the withdrawal of three Sahelian counties (Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali), adding that Nigeria is building up bilateral relationships with countries like Cameroon to secure the southern part of the country.
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