New Defence Minister: ‘Nigerians Must See Results’

Punch Editorial Board, Monday December 8, 2025

That many Nigerians have lost confidence in the ability of their government to tackle insurgency and other forms of insecurity is an understatement. Hence, the recent appointment of Christopher Musa, a general who was recently retired from the Nigerian Army, as Minister of Defence elicits mixed feelings.

Some citizens have expressed doubts about Musa’s ability. To them, he did not quite succeed in defeating insecurity during his tenure as Chief of Defence Staff.

Some others expressed hope that his vast experience and lessons learnt as CDS from 2023 to October 2025 will bear fruit in his new assignment.

Seen as one of Nigeria’s most accomplished infantry commanders, Musa, 58, spent almost four decades in the Nigerian Army.

He headed Sector 3 of the Multinational Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad Basin. He was the Theatre Commander of Operation Hadin Kai, the major counterterrorism operation in the North-East, among other roles.

The new minister already knows the challenges. He has his work cut out for him. Terrorists have killed over 100,000 Nigerians and are still killing. Over two million others have been displaced.

Many farmers have abandoned their farms, just as many citizens, including students, are being kidnapped, and schools are closed.

Last month alone, the terrorists attacked Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, in Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State.

They killed the vice-principal and abducted 26 schoolgirls. The girls have since regained their freedom.

They also attacked St. Mary’s Catholic school at Papiri in Agwarra LGA of Niger State and abducted over 300 schoolchildren and 12 teachers. About 50 students have since escaped, but about 250 others remain in captivity. There must be a solution to these incessant attacks.

Musa needs to overhaul the defence system. As a member of the Federal Executive Council, he should be able to impress on his colleagues what needs to be done to defeat insurgency in the country.

He must boost inter-agency collaboration, seek assistance from others and live up to his promises.

“Nigerians have shown me love, and I assure them that I will work, whatever it takes, to ensure that Nigeria is secured. Within the shortest possible time, Nigerians will see results,” Musa said during his onboarding.

He had worked with the Service Chiefs before. He should interface with them to trash out certain issues concerning arms and equipment procurement, welfare of soldiers and fifth columnists in security circles, among others.

He needs to go beyond the regular military style and combine non-kinetic methods in the war against terror. He has a helicopter view of Nigeria’s security architecture. He must, therefore, find a way of getting everybody involved in this fight.

He should seek help in the area of precise, credible, tech-driven intelligence to be able to destroy insurgents and bandits. He can study the template of countries that eliminated insurgency and apply it to Nigeria’s situation.

His pledge to get to the root of the reported sabotage in the military is reassuring. He has assured of full-scale investigation into the troop withdrawal before the Kebbi school terrorist attack and the recent killing of Musa Uba (a brigadier-general) and others in Borno State.

He must adopt a zero-tolerance approach to terrorism and banditry.

To succeed, Musa must avoid the pitfalls of his immediate predecessor, Abubakar Badaru, and the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle.

Badaru resigned recently, ostensibly on health grounds. He had faced severe criticism following a recent interview he granted the BBC Hausa Service, where he claimed that terrorists “are people you cannot attack, or they are in the forests where our bombs cannot reach them.”

Matawalle is alleged to have sympathy for terrorists.

Such a politician has no business being in the Defence Ministry. Surprisingly, the self-styled Department of State Services cleared him as minister.

Bello Turji, a notorious bandit kingpin, should be one of Musa’s first targets. He should galvanise the military to capture him as well as other terrorists and deal with them decisively, signalling the beginning of the end to this relentless carnage.