The Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, has said that the bomb explosions in Maiduguri, Borno State in March 2026, were well calculated to disrupt President Bola Tinubu’s visit to the United Kingdom.
Musa was reported to have made the claim while speaking on the country’s security situation and efforts to combat terrorism during an interview on Arise Television on Friday.
Despite the bombing in Maiduguri, many Nigerians and political elites criticised and condemned Tinubu over the UK state visit.
But Musa said the bombing was meant to either stop Tinubu from making the trip or to undermine his position abroad.
He urged Nigerians not to be used to destabilise the country, noting that those who run away from troubled nations often face discrimination abroad.
The minister who spoke on his experience in conflict-affected countries including Sierra Leone and Liberia stressed the need for Nigerians to unite to tackle insecurity and stop further violence.
You would hear bombs going off from there and there,” he said. You keep hearing about vehicle-borne IED, body-borne IED, and all these things.
“You don’t hear them now. You hear them maybe once in a while here and there, and most of it is political stuff.
“The last ones that happened in Maidugri, Borno State, were meant to dissuade the President from visiting UK.
“It was intentional, and if you look at it, who and why? What were you trying to achieve?
“The idea is to ensure that the president doesn’t go there (UK), or even if he goes there, he doesn’t have any leverage to want to speak.
And that is deliberate to tell you. That was deliberately planned and that was done to make that point. It is very unfortunate but we want to appeal to Nigerians not to allow anybody to use them for any reason whatsoever
“Your country, it’s your country. If you let your country get destroyed, you go to another person’s country, you’ll be a second-class citizen.
We’ve seen it happen,” he said. I was in Sierra Leone, Liberia and different places, war is not good. We need to come together and address this issue and stop it.”
