Its main mission is to provide administrative and support services, timely and effectively to enable the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Sani Abacha served as defence minister while also acting as head of state in the 1990s.

[1] The goal of the defense ministry for the return of democratic rule was to reposition the military serve as defender of the elected constitutional government.

[2] In April 2022, the Permanent Secretary Ibrahim Kana, announced that the federal government had concluded plans to create a brand new Ministry of Defence, with the goal being to have various services operating under the same roof in a "Pentagon-like style", enhancing civil-military co-operation and ending the dichotomy between the services and the ministry.

The civilization cell are nine operational departments within the Ministry each headed by a civilian director: The civilian cell under the operational control of a civilian Director of the Nigerian Civil Service with others including: Recently, the Office of the Director under the (Office of the Permanent Secretary) Special Duties was created to oversee the following units in the Ministry: In addition, three agencies are subsumed under the Ministry: The Defence Mission, the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the Defence Intelligence School.