COAS Calls for Citizens’ Support to Defeat Insurgency

Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, has urged Nigerians to actively support the military in tackling the country’s security challenges, stressing that no army can succeed without the trust and backing of its citizens.

Speaking at the Nigerian Army Tertiary Students and Future Journalists Parley held at the University of Lagos, Oluyede — represented by Brig. Gen. Olawale Oyekola — highlighted the strategic role of the media in shaping public perception and aiding military operations.

He listed terrorism, insurgency, banditry, secessionist movements, farmers-herders clashes, and communal violence as major threats to national stability, and encouraged Nigerians to use the country’s ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity for nation-building rather than division.

Oluyede said the Army had adopted a “whole-of-society” approach to security and called on citizens to engage in positive, active security participation.