The Minister of Defence, retired General Christopher Gwabin Musa, has described Nigerian Youth as the country’s most critical asset in the battle against insecurity, urging them to take an active and deliberate role in safeguarding the nation.

General Musa made the call at the inauguration of the Musawah for Youth and Development Initiative in Kaduna, where he declared that Nigeria’s greatest asset is not its oil wealth or its natural resources but its young people. Represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Intelligence and Security, retired General Bala Isandu, the minister described the initiative as a timely platform for harnessing the potential of young Nigerians and women for national development and democratic participation.

He stressed that engaging youths through education, skills acquisition and human capacity development was a proven pathway to pulling them away from poverty, radicalisation and criminality, which he identified as root drivers of the country’s security crisis.

The minister’s challenge to the youth is consistent with a position he has maintained across multiple engagements in recent months. Speaking earlier at the 2026 Boys Brigade Nigeria Thanksgiving Service and National Award Night, Musa had emphasised that building a secure, peaceful and prosperous nation requires collective responsibility, insisting that sustainable peace cannot be achieved by government alone.

He called on corporate organisations, private institutions, faith-based bodies and well-meaning Nigerians to complement state efforts by investing in the moral, social and educational development of young people, noting that military operations alone could never be enough to resolve the country’s deep-rooted security challenges.

Musa had also made a similar declaration during a courtesy visit by the Non-Aligned Movement Youth Organization, where he asserted that insecurity in Nigeria could become a thing of the past if young people were effectively mobilised and integrated into national security efforts. He stressed that with proper coordination, structured support, and sustained cooperation between youth groups and security agencies, significant headway could be made against banditry, terrorism and other forms of violent crime.

The minister further reinforced this position in a televised interview, warning that no single individual, institution or government could defeat insecurity alone, and calling on all Nigerians to close ranks and confront the crisis as a united front.

At the Kaduna event, a representative of Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani echoed the minister’s sentiments, noting that most of the security challenges confronting the country were traceable to youth unemployment and lack of opportunity. The governor’s representative urged that youth development be treated as a permanent national programme rather than a project tied to individual political officeholders, warning that gains made today could easily be reversed if the structures put in place were not durable and institutionalised.