Beginning with the staff of the 8 Division Nigerian Army on March 27, 2023, the Nigerian Army (NA) has started a sensitization awareness talk on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
When he declared the sensitization lecture open, Lieutenant-General Faruk Yahaya, the Chief of Army Staff, who was being represented by the General Officer Commanding 8 Division NA Major-General Godwin Mutkut, said that the sensitization was required because of the lengthy deployment of troops for Internal Security Operations in conjunction with other security agencies to address various threats. The deployment of soldiers in various operations, according to him, has put them under a lot of stress, which has led to a high rate of casualties, injuries, equipment damage, and accumulated stress, as well as other mental health-related disorders.
He claimed that he gave the Department of Transformation and Innovation Army instructions to visit all NA formations and units to educate troops on the preventive measures to deal with PTSD because he recognized these difficulties and felt they were consistent with his philosophical outlook. He claimed that doing this would ensure the NA’s professionalism and would motivate the military to exert more effort in combating various offenses.
In operational regions, he urged personnel to watch out for one another and report any indications of unease among their comrades so that commanders could act swiftly to address the situation. He added that when these are carefully watched, misconduct and incidents among troops while deployed to different theaters will be significantly reduced.
In his welcome speech, Army Major-General Zakari Abubakar, the Chief of Transformation and Innovation, explained that the purpose of the sensitization was to inform the staff about factors that contribute to trauma, typical traumatic events on the battlefield, factors that affect casualties, and symptoms of PTSD. According to him, soldiers who spend a lot of time in combat zones are more likely to experience accumulated stress, a traumatic condition that can occasionally show up in their behavior. If the mounting tension is left unchecked, he warned, it could cause PTSD and compromise both the moral and physical aspects of fighting ability.
The Department will be able to engage with officers and troops of 8 Division Nigerian Army during the sensitization lecture, he claimed, and offer treatments for PTSD that are specific to the workforce. He, therefore, urged personnel to bring their experiences so as to assist the department in coming out with a strategic solution on how to address the challenges of PTSD.
The two lectures delivered were “Combat Stress and Operational Efficiency: NA CTCOIN operations in perspective”, delivered by Major General JJ Ogunlade (rtd) and “Management of PTSD: The Roles of Commanders”, delivered by Lieutenant Colonel S Dib.
