Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd.), has revealed he was a prime target in the recently foiled coup plot against President Bola Tinubu, stating the conspirators planned to either arrest him or shoot him if he resisted.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Sunday, the former Chief of Defence Staff confirmed his pivotal role in helping security agencies “nip the plot in the bud,” while disclosing he had been personally marked for removal by the plotters.
“I was also a target. I was supposed to be arrested, and if I refused, I was supposed to be shot,” Musa stated. He added, with a tone of fatalistic resolve, “But that’s the job. Anybody who goes into coup zeroes his mind because he knows if he succeeds, good. If he doesn’t succeed, whatever consequences come, you are ready for it.”
Musa dismissed the plotters as incompetent, describing them as “a bunch of very unserious individuals” who fundamentally misunderstood Nigeria’s democratic trajectory and the capabilities of its armed forces.
He expressed confidence that the nation’s military and security architecture were too robust to be destabilized by such an attempt.
