Retired General Christopher Musa was sworn in as Nigeria’s new Minister of Defence by President Bola Tinubu on Thursday at the State House in Abuja.
The appointment comes a day after the Senate confirmed him following an extensive five-hour screening. During the confirmation hearing, lawmakers questioned Musa sharply on recent security failures.
These included the contentious withdrawal of troops from a girls’ school in Maga, Kebbi State, just before a kidnapping of schoolgirls on November 17, and the killing of Brigade Commander Brig-Gen. Musa Uba in Borno.
Musa committed to launching immediate investigations into both incidents upon taking office. He succeeds former minister Mohammed Badaru, who resigned citing health reasons.
A highly experienced infantry officer, Musa recently served as Chief of Defence Staff until his retirement in October. Prior to that, he was the Theatre Commander of Operation Hadin Kai, the primary counter-insurgency effort in Nigeria’s North-East, giving him extensive firsthand experience in combating Boko Haram, ISWAP, and bandit networks throughout his career.
Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.
Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.
He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.
Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).
He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.
He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.
Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.
