Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, has categorically stated that the democratic system of government is better than military rule, News.ng reports.
The minister said this during an interview on Arise Television on Friday morning.
Speaking on the attempted coup by some military officers who are currently being prosecuted, the former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) disclosed that his removal from the military was not linked in any way to the attempted coup.
According to him, it was during his tenure in the military that it was discovered that some junior officers were planning to overthrow the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last October.
He said, “I have spent over 34 years, so at any time I did this discussion with Mr. President, I could be relieved, and so I was let go.” And five weeks later, I’m back to show you that, yes, it wasn’t that because I was involved in anything, and far from it, we were the ones that actually identified the coup, we were the ones who reported, I was the one who convened the committee that did the investigation, so we did all this together.
“What we are trying to do now is to show the junior ones that this coup doesn’t pay anything. Democracy is far, far better than any military regime, and so this is an opportunity.”
The minister described the officers involved in the attempted coup as a bunch of confused individuals who exposed junior officers who were still learning the ropes.
He explained, “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 that didn’t know they are left with their rights, and put them into this mess.” It’s quite unfortunate; we always feel bad when we see our colleagues derailing, but the good thing is that the system has a way of going about it, the investigation was very thorough, the prosecution now is going, and the court martial will go as planned, is ongoing, and we’re 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’re following all the processes, nothing is hidden.”
According to him, the actions of the officers are unjustifiable, adding that there was no reason for them to embark on such a mission when things were going smoothly in the military regarding the welfare of officers.
“It is quite unfortunate what they did, they had no reason to do that, the country was going very well, the armed forces have been taken care of quite very well, we’ve never had issues with our salaries, efforts have been made to even increase our allowances, our troops are doing quite very well, we’re getting more equipment to fight and make sure of this, and anybody who is thinking of planning a coup I think is just wasting their time, even the civilians in Nigeria will have taken them down, so I think it was just fool heady for them to have done what they are trying to do, or what they wanted to do.”
Watch the clip
