By Pascal Ibe

Introduction

Over the years, there have been continuous insinuations and allegations that there is a shortage of soldiers in the Nigerian army due to incessant Killings and insurgency in northern Nigeria.

Some Nigerians, especially in the southeastern part of the country, further claimed there is an agenda by the army authorities to force youths to join the army.

 It has been alleged without evidence that youths are deliberately being sent to the frontline with no better weapons in the fight against terrorists.

Claim

A video which claims to show the current Chief of Army Staff, Shuaibu Waidi, vowing to mandate youths to join the army, has surfaced online.

“If Nigerian youths refuse to join the Army willingly, we will make it mandatory from age 18 and above.  The 10,000 we recruited last year are nowhere to be found.”

The claim, which has spread to Facebook and to the X platform, has comments from people who believe that the video of the comment being attributed to the army chief is true.

See comments here and here.

Verification

First, FACTWATCH Nigeria cut out key frames from the video and subjected them to an image reverse search website; the results discovered that the video was from January 2024.

We found that the clip was from when Waidi took over as Theatre Commander, Northeast ‘Operation Hadin Kai’, from Major General Gold Chibuisi in the sustained fights against Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists.

In the original video posted on YouTube, Waidi said his “coming to the theatre is an opportunity to serve. My role is to galvanise officers and men to ensure we get our mandate for the operation Hadin Kai executed based on the rules of engagement.

“So, we must go ahead with the mandate of the ongoing operations and ensure that we enhance it, as well as ensure that the officers and men are doing what they are supposed to do,” he said.

Also, see a report that corroborates this evidence here.

FACTWATCH Nigeria observed that this claim, alongside the video was circulated in November 2025 here and here.

However, the army authorities debunked the claim then.

Lastly, the voice in the video, which was attributed to the army chief, does not sound like a natural voice; rather, it was artificial. Further proof that the video was altered by mischief makers.

Verdict

Findings have shown that the original video of the army chief speaking was from 2024 during his time as Theatre Commander. However, the clip was altered and used to claim that he is vowing to mandate youths to join the Nigerian Army.

Therefore, the video is misleading, and the claim is FALSE.