On April 18, 2025, Private Yahaya Yunusa, a 25-year-old Nigerian soldier, was arrested in Jaji, Kaduna State, with 214 rounds of ammunition he allegedly smuggled from frontline operations in Zamfara. The image of Yunusa, surrounded by bullets, shared by Sahara Reporters on X, has sparked outrage across Nigeria. But the real outrage should be directed at the systemic failures that drove him to this point—and the need for a fair judicial process to uncover the deeper rot within the Nigerian military.
Yunusa’s story is not an isolated incident; it is a symptom of a military institution rotting from the top down. Nigerian soldiers, the foot soldiers in the fight against Boko Haram, bandits, and separatists, are paid a pittance—less than $100 a month, roughly N50,000. For context, a bag of rice in Nigeria today can cost N80,000. These soldiers, often deployed to the most dangerous regions like Zamfara and Borno, are expected to survive on salaries that cannot feed their families, let alone provide dignity. Meanwhile, their parents, spouses, and children look to them for support, piling on the pressure to make ends meet. As Senator Ali Ndume noted in a 2024 documentary by Truth Nigeria, “Their parents are expecting that they will send them something monthly, and you pay the guy N50,000 or less. These are the major challenges that the government must rise to.”