On Monday, former Chief of Defense Staff General Christopher Musa (retired) paid President Bola Tinubu a visit at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, while former CDS General Lucky Irabor (retired) denied rumors that the Nigerian Armed Forces are recruiting repentant Boko Haram fighters.
Musa arrived the State House at 7:03 p.m., dressed in dark-green northern-style traditional clothes with elbow-length sleeves, and was taken inside the President’s office wing by a senior security official.
It was his first public encounter with the President since his retirement on October 24, 2025.
It could not immediately confirm the purpose of the visit.
His visit to the Villa coincides with increased worries about national security in the wake of President Tinubu’s proclamation of a security emergency.
The announced actions include hiring 20,000 more police officers, deploying forest guards, and strengthening security for mosques, churches, and schools in high-risk regions.
Security and intelligence services have also been urged to boost collaborative operations across hotspots in the North-West and North-Central.
Recent flashpoints include the abduction of 25 schoolgirls from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Kebbi; the kidnapping of 38 worshippers in Eruku, Kwara; and the mass abduction of over 300 kids and instructors at a Catholic school in Niger State.
In a 13-day campaign of synchronized attacks across the North, bandits snatched monarchs, worshippers, a bride, students and travellers, seizing at least 490 hostages.
Tinubu appointed Musa, a member of the Nigerian Defence Academy’s 38th Regular Course, as CDS in June 2023, and the Senate ratified his appointment the following month. He remained in office until the October 24 reorganization, when Lt. Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, the Army Chief at the time, took over.
Meanwhile, former CDS, Irabor, has forcefully disputed reports that repentant Boko Haram fighters are being incorporated into the military forces.
Appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Irabor argued that such recruitment was impossible within the military’s structure.
“It has always been a burden for me where we got this impression from. How can they be recruited? “This isn’t real,” Irabor declared.
Irabor claimed that his career track made the charges even more unlikely, citing his years in high-level command roles.
He remarked, “Before I became CDS, I was Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole. I then transitioned to the position as Force Commander, Multinational Aid on Taskforce. When I departed, I became Chief of Defence Training and Operations, managing all that. And then I became Theatre Commander and eventually got appointed as CDS, a position I spent two and a half years in. How is that possible? I’m not sure where folks got that impression.
“Even the most basic recruitment procedures make it impossible for former terrorists to slip through,” he continued.
“It is impossible. Besides, you can’t come into the military if those in your local administration have not officially sanctioned you,” he said.
Irabor highlighted that neither military recruitment nor the reintegration of former terrorists into the armed forces are handled by Operation Safe Corridor, the Federal Government’s deradicalization and reintegration initiative for low-risk former Boko Haram soldiers.
He acknowledged that there have been shortcomings in addressing insecurity around the country, but he denied that persistent problems are the result of military shortcomings, emphasizing the need for additional personnel, equipment, and a better comprehension of changing threats.
Through Operation Safe Corridor, which serves former militants who willingly surrender, the government has stepped up efforts in recent years to deradicalize and rehabilitate former Boko Haram fighters.
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