The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, has said the aggressive nature of personnel of Nigeria Armed Forces was in line with their training.
General Musa said military personnel are trained to be aggressive by bringing out the “animal” in them.
He stated that military personnel cannot be docile, otherwise, the essence of the military would be gone.
Nigeria’s CDS stated this in an interview with News Central while speaking on aggressive attacks on civilians by some military personnel. He, however, explained that efforts are made to contain the aggressiveness.
He highlighted that the training nature, the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and mental health were reasons for military personnel aggressiveness.
“It has also to do with the training. I don’t think anybody wants a docile military, I mean then there shouldn’t be military anymore. So somehow the training brings out that animal aspects of the military. And then for the junior ones these are things that we have to curtail; because of the nature of the training they are made to be aggressive. That’s their nature.
“So unfortunately sometimes.. and then we are doing that we are also teaching them on how to also contain themselves, respect for human rights, protection of the sick and wounded, all the things that have to do with the rules of war and all this together just to make them.
“But it is the nature of training that does that. So again we have this prolonged war. When you have prolonged warfare in a place, PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder come in. These are things you have to manage. Sometimes you see somebody become very aggressive because he has stayed, he has seen war, he has seen blood, he has seen corpses.
“It affects your human mind and that’s why you talked about the health of the human. Mental health issues. So these are things that we consistently try and check to make sure that the soldiers are above board, the soldiers are doing well,” he said.
The Chief of Defence Staff stressed that every military personnel faces punishment for wrong actions.
He said there is a reward and punishment mechanism put in place to ensure personnel behave disciplined.
“Again we have the reward and punishment system; you do well you are rewarded, you do badly, you are punished, and that has really curtailed.
“In the military and nobody assumes because whatever it is you do, you know the repercussions. We have our Armed Forces Acts that take care of every offense that could be committed. And then we do not shy away in punishing defaulters,” he added.