President Bola Tinubu on Saturday welcomed former Defence Minister General Theophilus Danjuma (retd.) to the State House in Abuja. The Presidency mentioned the visit in a short statement but gave no details. Presidents have long tapped Danjuma for advice on weighty national issues—he brings decades of military experience and the clout of an elder statesman.
Danjuma, 87, served as Chief of Army Staff from 1976 to 1979 under General Olusegun Obasanjo’s military government and later as Defence Minister during Obasanjo’s first civilian term from 1999 to 2003. The Taraba-born general was also a key player in the July 1966 counter-coup that installed General Yakubu Gowon.
Outside uniform, he built South Atlantic Petroleum and channels philanthropy through the TY Danjuma Foundation. In 2018 he grabbed headlines by urging Nigerians to defend themselves against armed attackers, claiming security agencies were letting vulnerable communities down.
