‘I Was to Be Arrested or Shot’ — Defence Minister Musa Opens Up on Coup Plot

Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has disclosed that he was a direct target in the recently thwarted coup attempt against President Bola Tinubu’s government, with conspirators allegedly planning to either arrest him or shoot him if he resisted their orders.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Sunday, the former Chief of Defence Staff revealed for the first time the personal dimension of the threat he faced, while offering unprecedented insights into the security operation that dismantled what he characterised as an amateurish plot driven by personal grievances rather than ideological conviction.

“I was also a target, I am sure you know. I was supposed to be arrested, and if I refused, I was supposed to be shot,” Musa stated matter-of-factly, describing the occupational hazards inherent in his role. “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.”

The minister’s candid admission sheds new light on the gravity of the plot, even as he dismissed the conspirators’ capacity to execute their plans, describing them as “a bunch of very unserious individuals” whose understanding of Nigeria’s contemporary political and military landscape appeared fundamentally flawed.

Musa confirmed that he played a central role in ensuring security agencies moved swiftly to abort the conspiracy, though he expressed bewilderment at the audacity of junior officers who believed they could challenge the Nigerian state and its armed forces.

“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, adding that even ordinary Nigerians, hardened by decades of resistance to military rule, would have rejected any attempt to overthrow democratic governance.

“Even Nigerians would have fought them. Even without the armed forces, Nigerians would have stood against them. Remember how Nigerians fought against the military rule for quite some time. And that’s why Mr. President has always been one of them,” Musa said, invoking Tinubu’s history as a pro-democracy activist during the struggle against military dictatorship in the 1990s.

The Defence Minister’s comments offer a rare window into the personal motivations behind the alleged conspiracy, which he traced to career frustrations within the military hierarchy. According to Musa, the plot originated with a colonel who had been denied promotion due to failing to meet required performance standards.

“It just started from the colonel himself, who felt disgruntled because he was not promoted. He didn’t meet the marks to be promoted,” Musa explained, noting that the armed forces maintains a rigorous merit-based promotion system that leaves little room for sentiment or political interference.

“You know that the armed forces is really very strict about its promotions system. But he didn’t make it. 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,” he said.

Musa expressed particular concern for younger officers who may have been manipulated into participating without fully grasping the consequences, describing their involvement as tragic.

“My pain is all those young officers who didn’t understand what was going on that he put in this mess. Now they have to face the consequences,” he said. “So everything evolves around him as an individual. But he was just a colonel. I can’t even imagine a colonel ever thinking of doing such a thing.”

The minister indicated that most of the suspects have been apprehended, with only “maybe one or two” still at large, and that the investigation was conducted meticulously to ensure that no innocent personnel were implicated.

“Since I was there, I was the one who inaugurated the board. I made sure the board started. We sent them to DIA to do a thorough investigation along with the NIA, DSS, and every other person. So it’s a holistic investigation that was carried out because we didn’t want any innocent person to be indicted,” Musa said.

He emphasised that the investigation relied on verifiable evidence rather than speculation, mindful of the legal scrutiny that would follow any prosecutions.

“If there’s a situation where you hear that somebody is trying to do something and you walk in, what facts do you have because you are going to go to the courts? If you can’t present it in the courts, then they throw you away. And then you look stupid,” he said.

Musa firmly rejected suggestions that the plot reflected broader dissatisfaction with Tinubu’s administration, insisting instead that the conspiracy predated the president’s inauguration in May 2023.

“These things were planned even right before the president took office. So it was a plan they had ahead of him since they knew he was the one who won the election,” he said, describing the development as “quite unfortunate.”

Drawing on Nigeria’s turbulent history of military coups between 1966 and 1993, Musa argued that successful putsches in the past had always required the backing of senior military commanders—a factor conspicuously absent in the current case.

“If you remember, during those days when they had coups, you had to have most of the big boys like the GOCs and service chiefs…You don’t have any of such. They are just very low-ranking individuals that have no access to some of these things,” he said.

He added: “For anybody to want to truncate democracy in this disposition, I think there’s something really wrong with them.”