By Kingston Magare 2.2.2026
Nigeria minister of defence General Christopher Musa rtd, said Nigerians would have resisted military rule had the alleged coup plot to unseat President Bola Tinubu seen the light of the day.
Musa who was speaking Sunday during Channels TV interview hinted that the coup plotters were a bunch of loafers who wouldn’t have taken the country anywhere, because they would have met resistance from the army and Nigerians.
“These guys were just a bunch of very unserious individuals. If you look at the calibre of persons (the coup plotters), I don’t know what got into their heads that they could take on the Armed Forces like that. Even Nigerians would have fought them.”
“Even without the armed forces, Nigerians will have stood against him.”
General Musa disclosed that he and other important Nigerians policy makers were prime targets for arrest or elimination.
“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,” he said.
Sixteen military officers are currently being detained in connection with the coup plot, which the Nigeria army Defence Headquarters and the presidency initially denied. Those arrested will be court martially according to the law.
“Anybody who goes into a coup… because you succeed, good, you don’t succeed, whatever the consequences come, you are ready for it,” Musa stated.
The plot, which the military said was uncovered in late September 2025 through joint intelligence from the army, Department of State Services (DSS), and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), allegedly involved plans to assassinate Tinubu, Vice-President Kashim Shettima, and other top government figures, as well as arrest senior military leaders.