Defence Minister Christopher Musa has said the officers who plotted to overthrow President Bola Tinubu’s government had so little support that ordinary NigeriansNigerians would have taken them down without the military’s intervention.
He described the plotters as a band of confused individuals who recklessly dragged clueless junior officers into a doomed enterprise.
Musa spoke on Arise News on Friday, as the general court martial of officers accused of involvement in the October 2025 plot continues.
“Even the civilians in Nigeria would have taken them down. So I think it was just foolhardy for them to have done what they wanted to do,” he said.
The minister expressed disbelief at the calibre of those involved, saying he shook his head when he considered who they were.
“I just looked at the people that were involved and I shook my head, because they are just a bunch of confused individuals that exposed very junior officers who didn’t know their left from their right, and now put them into this mess. It’s quite unfortunate,” he said.
Musa reserved particular sympathy for the lower-ranked officers, whom he described as victims of a senior officer’s recklessness.
“We always feel bad when we see our colleagues in this situation. But the good thing is that the system has a way of going about it,” he said.
On the ongoing prosecution, the minister said the process was transparent and that the accused were being given every opportunity to defend themselves.
“The investigation was very thorough. The prosecution is now ongoing, and the court martial will go as planned. We are giving them all the benefits to defend themselves.
“But the facts on the ground are very, very clear, and I can tell you that we are following all the processes. Nothing is hidden,” he said.
He was equally emphatic that the plot had no rational basis, given the state of the armed forces.
“They had no reason to do that. The country was going very well. The armed forces have been taken care of quite well. We’ve never had issues with our salaries.
“Efforts have been made to even increase our allowances. Our troops are doing quite well,” he said.
Musa also used the occasion to restate the case for democracy over military rule, saying the plotters had misjudged the national mood entirely.
“Democracy is far, far better than any military regime. And so this is an opportunity to show the junior ones that this coup doesn’t pay,” he said.
The plot, according to earlier disclosures by the minister, predated the Tinubu administration and centred on a disgruntled colonel who had failed the examination for promotion to the rank of brigadier-general.
The conspiracy first emerged in late September 2025 after intelligence was received by the Nigerian Army and the State Security Service, with the original plan said to have targeted the May 29, 2023 presidential inauguration.
The Defence Headquarters initially denied any coup attempt, insisting the arrested officers were only undergoing routine internal scrutiny, even as raids linked to the investigation, including a search of the Abuja residence of former Bayelsa governor Timipre Sylva, continued to widen its scope.
About three months after the initial denials, the military confirmed that the detained officers would face trial before a court martial.