The attack happened Sunday night in a Christian neighborhood of Kano, the largest city in Nigeria's Muslim north.
A military spokesman said the attack caused no injuries, but local witnesses said three people were wounded.
The bomb apparently was hidden inside of a drinking can. A January attack by members of the Boko Haram sect saw gunmen throw similar explosives.
That January attack killed at least 185 people.
Boko Haram is waging an increasingly bloody fight against Nigeria's weak central government in its effort to enact strict Shariah law across the multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people and free its imprisoned members
