President Bola Tinubu has chosen General Christopher Gwabin Musa (retired) to be the new Minister of Defense.
Tinubu wrote a letter to Senate President Godswill Akpabio to let him know that Musa had been nominated to replace Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, who resigned yesterday.
Bayo Onanuga, the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, made this known in a statement.
In a letter to the Senate, President Tinubu stated he was sure that General Musa could lead the Ministry of Defence and make Nigeria’s security system even stronger.
Musa, who will age 58 on December 25, was the Chief of Defence Staff from 2023 to October 2025, when the President fired him after an alleged failed coup plot against the president.
The former CDS was seen at the Presidential Villa yesterday, December 1. He held a private meeting with the President in his office at the State House a few hours before the former Minister of Defense, Mohammed Badaru, announced his resignation.
General Musa was born in Sokoto in 1967. He went to school there for both basic and high school before going to the College of Advanced Studies in Zaria. He graduated in 1986 and went to the Nigerian Defense Academy the following year. He got his Bachelor of Science degree in 1991.
In 1991, Musa was made a Second Lieutenant in the Nigerian Army. Since then, he has had a successful career. He has held the following positions: General Staff Officer 1, Training/Operations at HQ 81 Division; Commanding Officer, 73 Battalion; Assistant Director, Operational Requirements, Department of Army Policy and Plans; and Infantry Representative/Member, Training Team, HQ Nigerian Army Armour Corps.
In 2019, he was the Deputy Chief of Staff for Training and Operations at the Headquarters Infantry Centre and Corps. He was also the Commander of Sector 3 for Operation Lafiya Dole and the Commander of Sector 3 for the Multinational Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad Region.
In 2021, General Musa was named the commander of Operation Hadin Kai in the theater. In 2023, President Tinubu made him Chief of Defense Staff. Before that, he was in charge of the Nigerian Army Infantry Corps.
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