Matawalle Must Go” – Nation Refuses to Accept a Half-Clean, Half-Compromised Defence Ministry as General Musa Takes Charge

Nigeria has entered a decisive new chapter in its long war against terrorism. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has just removed Mohammed Badaru as Minister of Defence and, for the first time in many years, handed the ministry to a battle-tested soldier, General Christopher Musa, a man whose credibility comes from scars earned on the front lines rather than from political connections.

Yet one glaring question now dominates the national conversation: if Badaru had to leave because the security system was failing, why is Bello Matawalle still occupying the office of Minister of State for Defence?

Nigerians insist that it is impossible to sanitise one half of a rotten room while deliberately leaving the other half reeking of suspicion. Common sense, security sense, and the instinct for national survival all point to the same unavoidable conclusion: Matawalle must go.

The reason is straightforward. The Nigerian people no longer trust Bello Matawalle, and trust in national security matters is not negotiable; it is absolutely compulsory. Serious, public and still-unresolved allegations hang over him.

A respected Islamic cleric openly accused him on television of maintaining links with notorious terrorists such as Bello Turji and dared Matawalle to sue him if the claims were false. To this day Matawalle has filed no lawsuit, offered no rebuttal, issued no clarification and taken no visible step to clear his name.

Leaving a man carrying such grave allegations inside the very ministry that makes counter-terrorism decisions is reckless, dangerous and constitutes irresponsible governance. No nation can credibly fight terrorism with ministers whom citizens genuinely suspect of connections to the same terrorists.

This issue transcends religion, ethnicity or party politics; it is purely about the integrity of Nigeria’s security apparatus. Millions of citizens believe that as long as Matawalle remains in office, General Musa will face sabotage from within the ministry itself, and those citizens have every reason to be deeply worried.

President Tinubu cannot build a new defence architecture on old and compromised foundations. Badaru was removed because insecurity kept worsening and the ministry desperately needed a complete reset.

It therefore makes no sense to excise only the head of a failed structure while preserving its tail. If the principal minister resigned or was removed, the junior minister who served under the same failed regime must follow.

In every country that treats national security with utmost seriousness, defence ministers are expected to be completely clean. An American Secretary of Defense facing unresolved allegations of links to enemy groups would be gone the same day.

A British Home Secretary could not survive even twenty-four hours with unaddressed claims of collusion with extremists. France would never appoint anyone with questionable ties to militant groups, and Israel’s Defence Minister could not endure even whispers of sympathy toward enemies of the state.

Yet Nigeria appears ready to ask General Musa to combat Boko Haram, ISWAP, bandits and foreign mercenaries while seated beside a colleague many citizens believe once fraternised with those very terrorists. Such a situation borders on madness, and the madness must end now.

President Tinubu must clean the Ministry of Defence completely, not partially. General Musa has been brought in to reform the entire security architecture and will already battle corruption, internal sabotage, ego, tribal interference and political infiltration. The last thing he needs is a deputy whose mere presence erodes public trust and divides the nation.

If General Musa fails, Nigeria fails. Therefore nobody—absolutely nobody—should remain in that ministry unless their integrity is beyond question. The Nigerian people are tired of emotional politics and half-measures. This is the moment for brutal truth and decisive action.

For the sake of transparency, for genuine security, for restored national confidence, for General Musa to have any chance of success, and for Nigeria to finally possess a defence ministry uncrippled from within, Bello Matawalle must go.

The entire country is watching, and this decision has become the first real test of the government’s seriousness about ending insecurity once and for all.

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