President Bola Tinubu met with Nigeria's service chiefs on Monday evening in Abuja, marking his first formal engagement with military leaders since appointing a new defence minister. The closed-door session addressed pressing security concerns amid ongoing threats like student abductions. Officials described it as a high-level effort to realign defence strategies.
On December 15, 2025, President Bola Tinubu convened a closed-door meeting with Nigeria's service chiefs at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, starting around 6:01 pm. This gathering followed Tinubu's attendance at the public presentation of the book From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari at the State House Conference Centre. It was the president's first formal interaction with the military high command since the swearing-in of General Christopher Musa (retired) as Minister of Defence on December 4, 2025.
The agenda remained undisclosed as of press time, but the meeting occurred against a backdrop of escalating internal security challenges. These include the continued captivity of 115 students abducted from a Catholic boarding school in November 2025. Public pressure has mounted on the federal government to improve responses to kidnappings and mass abductions, especially in the North and Middle Belt regions.
Tinubu had declared a national security emergency on November 26, 2025, ordering the recruitment of new personnel for security agencies to address manpower shortages and redeploying police officers from VIP protection to core duties. The session also followed the Senate's approval of deploying Nigerian troops to the Republic of Benin after an attempted coup there, highlighting Nigeria's regional security roles under ECOWAS.
Security sources indicated discussions likely covered internal operations, intelligence coordination, border security, counterterrorism, and regional commitments. Recent calls for reviews of senior security officials' performance amid persistent insecurity added context. Officials at the villa declined immediate briefings to journalists.
President Tinubu restated his administration's resolve to mobilize military and law enforcement assets to crush security threats and protect Nigerians. Analysts view the meeting as an urgent step to assert civilian oversight, coordinate armed forces responses, and rebuild public trust in the state's protective capacities.
