The Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, has resigned his appointment with immediate effect.
A statement issued in Abuja on Monday by the Special Adviser to the President (Information and Strategy), Bayo Onanuga, confirmed the resignation.
According to the statement, Badaru, in a letter dated December 1,2025, sent to President Bola Tinubu, said he was quitting on health grounds.
It added that President Tinubu had accepted the resignation and thanked Abubakar for his services to the nation.
“President Tinubu will likely inform the Senate of Badaru’s successor later this week,” Onanuga said.
Badaru Abubakar, 63, was a two-term governor of Jigawa state from 2015 to 2023.
He was appointed as a minister on August 21, 2023, by President Tinubu.
His resignation comes amid President Tinubu’s declaration of a national security emergency, with plans to elaborate on its scope in due course.
It would be recalled that the former defence minister drew the ire of Nigerians when, in his recent interview with the BBC Hausa Service,he laid bare glaring deficiencies in addressing security challenges and dropped a shocking gaffe.
He said the Nigerian Air Force(NAF) could not rout forest-hiding terrorists because some hideouts were too thick for bombs to penetrate.
Abubakar was quoted to have said:“In this kind of war, from time to time, there will be relief; sometimes they will do something that will shock everyone on the ground, although I have heard some say that their whereabouts are known and who they are.
“It is true that their whereabouts are known, but they are people you can not attack, or they are in the forests where our bombs can not reach them.
“I assure you that our soldiers are working day and night to see how they can deal with this.”
Most Nigerians found his comments confusing and contradictory as they clearly betrayed his ignorance of the advances in the defence sector and embarrassed the military.
Meanwhile, speculations are rife that the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff(CDS), General Christopher Musa(rtd) may be the new Defence Minister.
He met with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday evening in a closed-door meeting at the State House, Abuja.
Musa, who arrived at the venue of the meeting at exactly 7:03 p.m., was ushered into the President’s office wing by a senior security official.
The agenda of the meeting was not disclosed, but sources said it may be in connection with his appointment as the new Defence Minister.
General Christopher Musa (rtd.) served as Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff from June 2023 until his retirement on October 24, 2025.
His tenure covered a critical period marked by intensified counterterrorism operations, renewed security sector reforms, and showcased the current administration’s ongoing efforts for a unified, whole-of-government security framework in tackling emerging insecurity challenges.
