Magashi was one of 14 nominees who were screened by senators on Thursday, July 25, 2019, and he faced questions on fighting insecurity due to his military background as a retired Major General.

He said the Armed Forces' operational capabilities have been overstretched that it might be suffering from a manpower issue.

He said, "The theatre of war, I think we civilians encourage it because everyday you find that one problem has arisen and then you need troops to cover that area.

"We've almost disseminated all our forces, and I don't think the current structure is the true reflection of our manpower requirement in this country.

"We're only having divisions probably by name but I don't think they have the required manpower to manage."

Magashi also noted that the division in the command structure of the Armed Forces is a problem that needs to be resolved imminently.

According to him, service chiefs don't have a cordial relationship and are too invested in showing the individual capabilities of their own forces rather than coordinating with others.

He expressed irritation with how operations are conducted single-handedly by a service and not combined operations of other services. He promised to implement a restructuring of the command structure if appointed the Minister of Defence.

"Today, the service chiefs are trying to express their capabilities to the people who don't know the operational concept of troops.

"The Act that provided for all these chiefs, I assure you, we'll do our best to ensure a restructuring. 

"Whatever can be possible for us to do, we'll do it for the interest of the troops themselves. And then to secure our country properly with minimum cost," he said.

When asked how he'll deal with the resurgence of terrorist group, Boko Haram, Magashi said he'll keep troops motivated to put an end to the group's insurgency in the northeast.

"What I'll do differently is to ensure that rules are obeyed, procedures are followed, welfare is maintained, and every other thing that'll make troops happy and motivated to perform," he said.

Since Boko Haram's insurgency escalated in 2009, the terrorist group has killed around 30,000 people and displaced millions in the northeast region, with its operations also extending to border countries like Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.

Even though the powers of the Abubakar Shekau-led main faction of Boko Haram has been on the wane in the past couple of years, another faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has grown in influence and carried out several brutal attacks.

Despite ISWAP's attacks on military troops and bases over the past year, the Buhari-led government has insisted that the group has been degraded, and limited to only attacking "soft targets".