There is growing pressure on President Bola Tinubu to also remove Bello Matawalle as Minister of State for Defence following the ‘resignation’ of Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar as Minister of Defence.
SaharaReporters learned that the United States requested the removal of both Badaru Abubakar and Matawalle before it would engage in any collaboration with Nigeria on combating terrorism and banditry.
“There is pressure on Tinubu to remove Matawalle as well,” a top government source said. “We were told the US insisted that Badaru and Matawalle be replaced before any cooperation with Nigeria could proceed.”
Earlier on Monday evening, SaharaReporters reported that Badaru Abubakar resigned as Nigeria’s Defence Minister and is set to be replaced by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, according to top government sources.
Musa met with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja earlier on Monday. This marked his first public meeting with the President since Tinubu retired him on October 24, 2025.
Sources told SaharaReporters that during the meeting, President Tinubu informed Musa that he would “succeed Badaru as Defence Minister”.
In a letter dated December 1, sent to President Bola Tinubu, Abubakar said he was quitting on health grounds, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, said in a statement on Monday.
“President Tinubu has accepted the resignation and thanked Abubakar for his services to the nation,” the statement said.
“President Tinubu will likely inform the Senate of Badaru’s successor later this week.”
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.
Recently, Nigeria was redesignated by the U.S. as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC) over allegations of widespread Christian persecution.
In response, Nigeria dispatched a high-level delegation led by National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu to Washington, where both sides agreed to collaborate through joint mechanisms to address insecurity and religious freedom concerns.
The designation was based on claims of “particularly severe violations of religious freedom”, with US officials and advocacy groups alleging mass killings of Christians by extremist groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP.
Advocacy coalitions argued that Nigeria records more Christian deaths due to targeted violence than any other country combined, framing the situation as a form of genocide.
The move reignited tensions, as Nigeria had previously been placed on the CPC list in 2020 but removed in 2021. Nigerian officials, including President Bola Tinubu, rejected the genocide characterization, insisting it misrepresented Nigeria’s reality.
