'A Fit Choice': The Case for Gen. Musa as Nigeria's Next Defense Minister

'A Fit Choice': The Case for Gen. Musa as Nigeria's Next Defense Minister

By Tom Garba

As the echoes of Defence Minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar's resignation still reverberate through the corridors of power in Aso Rock, one name towers above the speculation swirling in Nigeria's security circles: General Christopher Gwabin Musa (retd.), the recently retired 18th Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). 

With President Bola Ahmed Tinubu facing mounting pressure to fill the vacancy amid a relentless wave of banditry, insurgency, and cross-border threats, the appointment of Gen. Musa as the next Minister of Defence isn't just a logical step, it's an imperative, a masterstroke that could redefine Nigeria's fight for peace.

Badaru's abrupt exit on December 1, citing health concerns in a terse letter to the President, comes at a precarious juncture. 

Tinubu's administration, already lauded for bold reforms, cannot afford a misstep here. Enter Gen. Musa: a battle-hardened tactician, a visionary reformer, and a patriot whose proven track record screams "fit choice" louder than any political resume ever could.

In the cutthroat arena of national security, where hesitation costs lives and resolve builds nations, Gen. Musa's elevation to Defence Minister would signal Tinubu's unyielding commitment to results over rhetoric. 

As someone who's shadowed troops from the Sambisa Forest to the Zamfara badlands, reporting on the blood, sweat, and strategy that define our armed forces, I can attest: Musa isn't just qualified; he's the antidote to complacency. 

His return to the fold, fresh from a private audience with the President just hours before Badaru's announcement, feels less like coincidence and more like destiny unfolding.

Why Gen. Musa? The Unassailable Case

Nigeria's security apparatus demands a leader who blends kinetic firepower with non-kinetic finesse, who turns intelligence into action and despair into discipline. 

Gen. Musa, hailing from Zangon Kataf in Kaduna State and commissioned into the Nigerian Army in 1991 after excelling at the Nigerian Defence Academy, embodies this rare alchemy. 

His career isn't a checklist of postings; it's a chronicle of triumphs that have bent the arc of our nation's security toward hope.

Under his stewardship as CDS from June 2023 to October 2025, the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) didn't just hold the line—they advanced it. 

Musa inherited a fractured force reeling from years of asymmetric warfare, yet he forged it into a symphony of synergy: inter-agency collaboration, troop welfare, and global partnerships that elevated Nigeria from a cautionary tale to a continental powerhouse. 

Musa's legacy is one of accountability and evolution; lessons learned, standards raised, and human rights woven into every operation.

Tinubu, who appointed him CDS in a move hailed as a "square peg in a square hole," knows this better than anyone. 

Reappointing Musa as Defence Minister would turbocharge the President's Renewed Hope agenda, ensuring seamless continuity while injecting fresh strategic vigor. 

In a cabinet reshuffle speculated to prioritize technocrats over politicians, Musa stands as the gold standard: apolitical, results-driven, and fiercely loyal to the troops who bleed for us.

A Legacy of Victories: Gen. Musa's Notable Achievements

Here's a curated list of his standout feats, drawn from declassified operations, official Defence Headquarters tallies, and eyewitness accounts from the frontlines—each a brick in the fortress of his candidacy:

Nigerian troops achieved massive neutralizations and surrenders, neutralizing more than 3,000 terrorists and bandits, apprehending thousands more, and most crucially inducing the surrender of thousands insurgents, including high-value Boko Haram commanders, while operations like Hadin Kai in the Northeast systematically dismantled ISWAP enclaves, with the first quarter of 2024 alone recording 2,352 terrorist kills, 2,308 arrests, and 1,241 hostage rescues; Musa did not merely fight but broke the enemy’s will, turning foot soldiers into informants and their once-safe havens into graveyards.

From schoolchildren in Kaduna to entire villages in Niger, his intelligence-led operations freed more than 2,000 kidnap victims in just two years, dealing a devastating blow to the ransom economies that fuelled criminal empires, and his “people-first” doctrine that prioritised swift, humane interventions earned him the enduring title “The Rescuer General,” with grateful families across the North erecting shrines in his honour.

As a modernisation maestro, Musa personally spearheaded the training and arming of 800 elite Special Operations Forces personnel at Camp Kabala, Jaji, drove Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) innovations such as locally produced drones and armoured vehicles, and introduced sweeping welfare reforms including better pay, mental health support, and family grants that boosted troop morale by 40% according to internal Armed Forces surveys, slashed desertions, and transformed the military into a truly 21st-century fighting force.

On the diplomatic front, his relentless shuttle diplomacy with Russian, Pakistani, and British defence chiefs, coupled with hosting the African Chiefs of Defence Conference in Abuja in August 2025, unlocked billions of naira in aid and technology transfers, while his deft visit to Niger Republic defused cross-border tensions and the restructuring of Northwest operations into unified commands like Fansan Yamma fortified Nigeria’s Sahel flank, burnishing the country’s global image and earning him honours such as Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) and the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Nigeria Service Awards.

These are not abstract metrics; they are lives saved, communities rebuilt, and a nation steadied on the very brink of collapse.

The Bigger Picture: Why Now, Why Him?

Appointing Gen. Musa would be Tinubu's chess grandmaster move: bridging military expertise with civilian oversight, silencing critics of "political appointments," and accelerating gains from his CDS era. 

With the Senate's nod all but assured—given his unblemished service and northern roots—he could hit the ground running, targeting root causes like economic sabotage via illegal mining and youth radicalization.

Gen. Musa doesn't lead from afar—he leads from the foxhole. That's the minister we need. President Tinubu, the ball is in your court. Make the fit choice. Make it Musa.

 _Tom Garba is the Publisher of TGNews and an investigative journalist with over two decades of experience covering Nigeria's security sector._