Nigeria’s minister of defence, Gen Christopher Musa (retd), has revealed that he was among the intended targets of a recently foiled coup plot against President Bola Tinubu, saying the conspirators planned to arrest him – or shoot him if he resisted.
Speaking on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, Musa said he had been personally identified by the plotters and dismissed the suspects as “a bunch of very unserious individuals” who fundamentally misunderstood both Nigeria’s democratic history and the capacity of its armed forces.
“I was also a target, I am sure you know,” Musa said. “I was supposed to be arrested, and if I refused, I was supposed to be shot.”
The former chief of defence staff acknowledged that he played a role in helping security agencies disrupt the plot, but said such risks were inherent in military service. “That’s the job,” he said. “Anybody who goes into a coup zeroes his mind. If he succeeds, good. If he doesn’t succeed, whatever consequences come, you are ready for it.”
Musa said the alleged conspirators lacked both the calibre and institutional backing required to challenge the Nigerian state. “If you look at the calibre of the individuals, I really don’t know what got into their heads to think that they could take on the armed forces like that,” he said.
He added that even without military intervention, the wider public would have resisted any attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government. “Even Nigerians would have fought them,” Musa said. “Remember how Nigerians fought against military rule for quite some time. For them to think they could just wake up one morning and do that in Nigeria, something went wrong in there. They need to reset their brains.”
According to the defence minister, most of those involved in the plot have been arrested, with only “maybe one or two” suspects still at large. He traced the origins of the conspiracy to a disgruntled colonel who, he said, failed to secure promotion under the military’s strict, merit-based system.
“He didn’t meet the marks to be promoted,” Musa said. “So what he decided to do was probably go around, look at other people that had one issue or the other, with the aim of bringing them in.”
Musa expressed particular concern for junior officers allegedly drawn into the scheme. “My pain is all those young officers who didn’t understand what was going on that he put in this mess,” he said. “Now they have to face the consequences.”
He insisted that executing a coup in present-day Nigeria was no longer feasible, unlike during earlier periods of military rule. “That was Nigeria of yesteryears,” Musa said. “It’s impossible.”
He also emphasised that the investigation into the plot was evidence-based and collaborative, involving multiple intelligence agencies to avoid wrongful indictments. “We sent them to DIA to do a thorough investigation along with the NIA, DSS, and every other person,” he said. “It’s a holistic investigation because we didn’t want any innocent person to be indicted.”
Rejecting claims that the alleged coup was driven by dissatisfaction with Tinubu’s administration, Musa said the plan predated the president’s inauguration. “These things were planned even right before the president took office,” he said. “They knew he was the one who won the election.”
Musa noted that past coups in Nigeria had only succeeded with the backing of senior commanders – a factor he said was entirely absent in this case. “You don’t have any of such,” he said. “They are just very low-ranking individuals that have no access to some of these things.”
The defence minister’s comments came amid reports linking the investigations to former Bayelsa state governor Timipre Sylva, who has remained outside Nigeria for months following a raid on his Abuja residence by operatives of the Defence Intelligence Agency.
Sylva is reportedly facing possible arraignment in absentia over alleged financial crimes and has been declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over an alleged $14.8m fraud. Security sources say Interpol and other international partners are involved in efforts to track him.
In October 2025, the Defence Headquarters initially dismissed reports of a coup attempt despite the arrest of 16 officers, describing the claims as designed to “cause unnecessary tension”. The military later reversed its position, with the current director of defence information confirming last week that investigations had uncovered a plot to topple Tinubu’s administration and that several officers had cases to answer
