The alleged mastermind of a failed 2025 coup attempt in Nigeria said he acted out of “patriotism” over what he described as his country’s “gradual decline,” local media reported Monday.
Nigeria’s military announced in January that it had arrested 36 officers accused of plotting to overthrow the government.
A military tribunal was established in May to try the officers, including the alleged ringleader, Colonel Mohammed Ma’aji, 50.
“We have our biases and our thoughts and concerns on what was going on in our country from a state of gradual decline up to now, and we are almost at the point of collapse,” Ma’aji said, according to remarks to military investigators published by newspaper Premium Times.
He said the plot was “driven by the desire to have a prosperous nation and country that we all can be proud of,” and that he and others acted after watching the country “turning into a banana republic right before our eyes.”
In the transcript, Ma’aji criticized government corruption, reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu since taking office in 2023, including the removal of fuel subsidies, poor military pay, and the deterioration of the healthcare system.
He also confirmed receiving financial support from former oil minister Timipre Sylva, who is currently on the run and allegedly provided 400 million naira ($294,000).
The military tribunal has not yet delivered its verdict.
Had the coup succeeded, it would have ended more than 25 years of democratic rule in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, which spent much of the 20th century under military governments after gaining independence from Britain in 1960.