IN SHORT: A claim that joining the army could be made mandatory for Nigerians aged 18 and above has gone viral after multiple AI-generated videos showed military chiefs making the statement. But the claim is false.
Nigeria has been grappling with an insecurity crisis, with multiple terror attacks reported in different parts of the country.
Amid the crisis, a claim that young people aged 18 and above will be forced to join the army has gone viral on social media.
There are several videos of Nigeria’s chief of defence staff, Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede, and chief of army staff, Major General Waidi Shaibu, seemingly making this statement.
In the videos, the military chiefs can be heard saying: “If Nigerian youths refuse to join the army, we will make it mandatory for everybody from the age of 18 and above to join. The 10,000 we recruited last year are nowhere to be found.”
The claim also appears here, here and here. (Note: See more instances at the end of this report.)
There has been heightened attention on insecurity in Nigeria and the country’s military since the US president Donald Trump characterised Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” in late October 2025. Trump also threatened military intervention to “completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists”, whom he claimed were perpetrating Christian genocide.
A “country of particular concern” is a designation of a nation engaged in severe violations of religious freedom under the US’s International Religious Freedom Act.
Nigerian president Bola Tinubu and his government rejected Trump’s claims, saying the terror attacks also affected Muslims and people of other religions.
Following a wave of terror attacks in November, Tinubu declared a nationwide security emergency and ordered the army and the police to recruit and train more personnel.
But does the Nigerian army plan to make military service mandatory for people aged 18 and above? We checked.
The videos are AI-generated
We closely examined the videos and found evidence suggesting they were generated using artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
Oluyede’s voice in the circulating video was significantly different from that in his speech during his confirmation as the chief of defence staff by the Nigerian senate on 29 October.
Furthermore, the podium in the video of Oluyede has the seal of the chief of army staff, which is strange because it would normally bear the seal of the chief of defence staff.
The videos of Shaibu also have voices that do not match the army chief’s voice.
The defence headquarters debunks the claim
The Nigerian defence headquarters’ director of defence information, Brigadier General Samaila Uba, issued a statement debunking the claim.
Part of the statement reads:
“The attention of the Defence Headquarters has been drawn to the circulation of a fake video depicting a mischievously cloned image of the Chief of Defence Staff General OO Oluyede AFM. In the fake video, a malicious statement was attributed to him about the intent of the military to forcefully recruit young Nigerians from the age of 18 years into the military against their will.
For the avoidance of doubt, let it be on record that the purported statement was never made by the Chief of Defence Staff, any of the Service Chiefs and indeed by any member of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
In this age of Artificial Intelligence, disinformation and malinformation it is important that care is taken by all to avoid the creation and sharing of fake statements and videos without clearly verifying their source and authenticity.”
The claim that there are plans to make it compulsory for Nigerians aged 18 and older to join the army is false.
The same claim was found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
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