*Says “₦5.41tn Looks Very Large, But When You Consider The Cost Of Modern Warfare, It Is Not So Much”
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The Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has accused the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, of taking actions that deepened divisions in the state during his tenure, while also defending the ₦5.41 trillion allocated to defence and security in the 2026 budget and explaining the tactics behind recent rescues of abducted victims.
The minister spoke on Thursday on Channels Television’s Politics Today, covering three subjects that have dominated public debate on security: the record of the previous Kaduna administration, the cost of fighting the war, and the methods now being used in the field.
Musa alleged that El-Rufai’s administration created a situation in which residents could not move freely between the northern and southern parts of Kaduna State.
“El-Rufai did a lot of terrible things in Kaduna State. He divided the state into two. In that, if you are from the south, you cannot go to the north to live. Those ones from the north were moving to the south,” he said.
He credited Governor Uba Sani with reversing the pattern. “I mean, you can’t imagine that in the country. The country that is supposed to be one. But Governor Uba Sani, within one year, has been able to dissolve all that,” he said.
“You see now, everybody is free. Everybody has a say. It’s not 100 percent, let me tell you; it’s not 100 percent. But you can see that he’s making deliberate effort in uniting the state.”
The minister alleged that residents of southern Kaduna remained aggrieved over the former governor’s handling of the killings recorded in the area, and claimed that El-Rufai had spoken publicly about payments made to bandits.
“If you look at his videos, his speeches, he was very proud of what he did. He told us he paid bandits. He told us he did this; he did that. He didn’t hide it,” Musa alleged. “He was that arrogant to come out and tell people that this was what he did.”
He drew a comparison with the present. “If you look at the number of killings that were done there and what is going on now, you can’t compare at all. And he didn’t give opportunities. We couldn’t do a lot of things,” he said. “But now you could see that breath of fresh air.”
Musa also accused the former governor of using his office to demolish the properties of residents over personal disagreements.
“I can tell you people what he has done to people living in Kaduna State from his own area. He had just personal issues with friends. The next thing, he sends a bulldozer to bulldoze your house down. He’s done it. It’s there on the TV,” he alleged.
“It’s not anything I’m concocting. People just go to YouTube and check what he has done. I mean, you will see a lot of it,” he added. “He did a lot of things that I’m sure even he too is not proud of. Sitting down to look at it, I think he’s not proud of. And nobody should really, really be able to do that.”
Despite the criticism, the minister said he did not regard El-Rufai as an enemy, describing him instead as “misguided”. He said his position was not driven by the fact that he is from Kaduna State but by his identity as a Nigerian concerned about developments in the country, and called for political leaders committed to national unity rather than the exploitation of religious and ethnic differences for political gain.
Turning to the budget, Musa said the sum allocated to defence and security appears large until it is measured against the cost of modern warfare.
“When we go about these issues, how much do these things cost? If you divide 5 point something trillion, divide it to dollars, what can you buy? Maybe you can buy a few things,” he said.
He itemised the costs. “One Tomahawk missile that was fired, $3.2 million. One drone, drone precision bomb, the least, $100,000. That’s 140 million. So imagine when you fire it, if it doesn’t hit something, 140 million. Just imagine that, it’s gone.”
On naval operations, he said: “One ship could take 20 trailers. Some could take 10, some 20. Five hours it has gone and come back, it’s empty. How much is that?”
The minister noted that the allocation also covers personnel costs. “So when you look at that aspect, it also has to do with remuneration of the troops and all these things. So it looks really very large, it’s very good, but again, not so much,” he said, adding: “Remember, Trump is looking for 1.5 trillion, they are producing their equipment, and yet they are looking for that amount of money.”
Musa said Nigeria was expanding domestic defence manufacturing.
“Production lines are coming in. We now produce MRAPs in Nigeria, APCs in Nigeria. We are building our drones,” he said, referring to Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles and Armoured Personnel Carriers.
He named companies coming on stream. “We have the TERA company, we have the EPL company that is also doing well. There are so many companies that are coming on stream. So we’re building that so that the capacity will get to that aspect.”
He added that work was ongoing on an air defence system. “You can see what’s happening in the world. Small companies, how they are able to secure themselves because of that. We are working on our air defence system so that we make sure that our air defence is really iron-tight.”
President Bola Tinubu signed the 2026 Appropriation Bill into law on 17 April, authorising total expenditure of ₦68.32 trillion. The budget was presented to the National Assembly at ₦58.47 trillion and emerged at ₦68.32 trillion after legislative scrutiny. Defence and security received ₦5.41 trillion, one of the largest sectoral allocations, alongside ₦3.56 trillion for infrastructure, ₦3.52 trillion for education and ₦2.48 trillion for health.
Asked how troops have been able to recover abducted victims without bloodshed or ransom, as in recent operations in Kwara State and elsewhere in the North, Musa said the method turns on isolation rather than assault.
“Sometimes if you carry out manoeuvres. The funny thing is, the terrorists too don’t want to die. I hope you know that. All this one they’re doing carrying weapons, they don’t want to die. So once there’s anything, even if it’s a drone that comes, you see them scatter away and leave everybody. That’s what happens,” he said.
He explained the approach. “So what we normally do is once we’re able to identify where they are, we block avenues for them. Like I said, take out the oxygen, they will die. So those are the aspects, and that’s why as long as people go to support to sneak in, give them fuel, give them water, give them food, give them all this, these are the things that are making them thrive. Once they don’t have that, they can’t survive.”
On ransom, the minister said payments could themselves become a tracing tool. “I’m happy that the CBN too is living up to expectation, trying to make sure that even if we were able to trace monies that are coming in from those other areas, we can track back where they are,” he said.
Musa asked state governors to reconsider the distribution of motorcycles as palliatives, saying they end up giving terrorists mobility.
“We try to appeal to even governors to stop giving motorcycles out as palliatives. Because these motorcycles are the same ones that still end up with these terrorists using. Even if you have to give, don’t give them the big capacity motorcycles, give them the small capacity ones that they will not be able to use to run around, because that gives them leverage. They can easily enter and then disappear,” he said.
He alleged that motorcycles distributed as constituency projects and palliatives could find their way back to bandits.
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