The Minister of Defence in Nigeria, Mohammed Badaru, has resigned his appointment over health conditions.
In a letter sent to President Bola Tinubu on December 1, the resignation of the 63-year-old takes immediate effect
“President Tinubu has accepted the resignation and thanked Abubakar for his services to the nation,” a statement by president’s aide, Bayo Onanuga said on Monday.
It adde that “Tinubu will likely inform the Senate of Badaru’s successor later this week. His resignation comes amid President Tinubu’s declaration of a national security emergency, with plans to elaborate on its scope in due course.”
Badaru was a two-term governor of Jigawa state from 2015 to 2023 before he was appointed as a minister on August 21, 2023, by President Tinubu.
Recently, Tinubu appointed Badaru others to represent the country in the newly established US–Nigeria Joint Working Group, created to address security challenges in Nigeria.
The creation of the Joint Working Group was agreed during a recent visit to Washington, D.C., where a Nigerian delegation headed by Ribadu met with senior US officials amid rising concern over the scale of violence unfolding across Nigeria.
has urged for enhanced regional cooperation to combat terrorism in the ECOWAS and Sahel regions.
Speaking at a conference on combating emerging terrorist groups at the National Counterterrorism Centre in Abuja in September, Badaru stressed that insecurity poses an “existential challenge” to the people, economies, and future of the region.
Badaru outlined a three-pronged approach to tackling the threat.
He called for real-time intelligence fusion and technology sharing to track and dismantle terror networks.
The minister also pushed for the full operationalisation of the ECOWAS Standby Force and the creation of harmonised legal frameworks to deny extremists safe havens.
