President Bola Tinubu Monday met the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa.
The meeting might not be unconnected with the search for a new minister of Defence, following the sudden resignation of Badaru Abubakar, who quit the cabinet on health grounds.
Hours before the announcement of his resignation, Tinubu met privately with former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), at the State House.
Musa arrived at 7:03 p.m., dressed in dark-green northern-style traditional attire with elbow-length sleeves, before being led into the President’s office wing by a senior security official.
It was his first public meeting with the President since his retirement on October 24, 2025.
The purpose of the meeting could not be immediately confirmed, but it further fuelled speculation about who might replace Abubakar as Defence Minister.
Abubakar’s resignation, which took immediate effect, was conveyed in a letter dated December 1 and addressed to the President.
The development was announced in a statement issued Monday evening by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
His exit comes at a sensitive moment for the administration, which is grappling with rising insecurity that recently compelled President Tinubu to declare a nationwide security emergency.
The President had unveiled new measures including the recruitment of 20,000 additional police officers, deployment of forest guards, and heightened security for schools, churches and mosques in vulnerable communities.
