President Bola Tinubu has nominated former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa (retd), as the new Minister of Defence.
In a letter addressed to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Tinubu presented Musa as his choice to replace Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, who resigned on Monday.
General Musa, 58, served as Chief of Defence Staff from 2023 until October 2025. He previously received the Colin Powell Award for Soldiering in 2012.
Born in Sokoto in 1967, Musa completed his primary and secondary education in the state and later attended the College of Advanced Studies, Zaria. He enrolled in the Nigerian Defence Academy in 1986 and graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree, after which he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.
Throughout his career, Musa held several key positions, including General Staff Officer 1, Training and Operations at 81 Division Headquarters; Commanding Officer of 73 Battalion; Assistant Director, Operational Requirements at the Army Headquarters; and Infantry Representative at the Nigerian Army Armour Corps Training Team.
In 2019, he served as Deputy Chief of Staff, Training and Operations at the Infantry Centre and Corps, and later as Commander of Sector 3 under Operation Lafiya Dole and the Multinational Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad region. He was appointed Theatre Commander of Operation Hadin Kai in 2021 and later became Commander of the Infantry Corps before his elevation to Chief of Defence Staff in 2023.
President Tinubu, in his correspondence to the Senate, expressed confidence that Musa’s experience and leadership would further consolidate the nation’s defence and security architecture.
