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Nigeria: Soldiers face trial for alleged Tinubu coup plan

Nigeria's military will try several officers over an alleged plan to oust President Bola Tinubu last year, it said Monday, acknowledging a plot the government had initially denied.

In October, the military said 16 officers had been arrested over "issues of indiscipline".

Despite official denials, sources across the Nigerian government and military had told AFP they were arrested over a coup plot.

If successful, this would have brought an end to a quarter-century of democracy in Africa's most populous country.

"The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) wishes to inform the general public that investigations into the matter have been concluded," Major General Samaila Uba, a spokesman for the Defence Headquarters, said in a statement on Monday.

"The findings have identified several officers with allegations of plotting to overthrow the government," he said.

"Those with cases to answer will be formally arraigned before an appropriate military judicial panel to face trial."

No date was given for the trials. The officers could face the death penalty if found guilty, according to legal experts.

Shortly after denying the alleged coup plot, Tinubu reshuffled the country's top military brass.

A senior administration official told AFP at the time: "Normally, when such a thing happens, it means there is a gap in intelligence. No leader would accept that."

General Christopher Musa was dropped as chief of defence staff in the shuffle, though he has since come back as defence minister.

- Government denials -

The West African country has seen several military takeovers in its history and spent much of the 20th century under junta rule after its independence from Britain.

It transitioned to civilian rule in 1999 and has had a democratic government since.

Hints of the affair first became public when Nigeria's Defence Headquarters issued a statement on October 4 about the arrest of 16 officers, citing cases of indiscipline and perceived career stagnation.

Reports of a foiled coup later appeared in the Nigerian press.

News around the alleged plot faded from view amid strong government denials and as the country was swept up in a diplomatic crisis, as US President Donald Trump criticised Nigeria for allegedly not doing enough to protect Christians from violence.

The Nigerian military is fighting a long-running insurgency against Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province in the northeast.

While the violence has waned since its peak a decade ago, attacks continue -- including deadly assaults on military bases -- seemingly with no end in sight.

Analysts warned of a rise in violence in 2025, while troops have at times reported unpaid wages and poor conditions.

The military is stretched thin on other fronts as well, including fighting armed gangs known as "bandits" in the northwest that kidnap for ransom, and separatists in the southeast.

The United States has since launched joint strikes against Islamic State Sahel Province militants in the northwest and pledged increased intelligence sharing to help Nigeria carry out air strikes across the north.

Source: https://www.africanews.com/2026/01/27/nigeria-soldiers-face-trial-for-alleged-tinubu-coup-plan//

Trump seeking ‘regime change’ in Cuba by end of the year: US media report.
United States President Donald Trump aims to remove Cuba’s leadership and is actively seeking government insiders in Havana who are willing to make a deal with Washington to “push out the Communist regime”, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The US newspaper, quoting unnamed US officials, reported on Wednesday that the Trump Administration does not have a “concrete plan” for Cuba, but that the recent abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the US military was “left behind as a blueprint and a warning for Cuba”.

A US official told the newspaper that meetings have been held with Cuban exiles and civic groups in Miami and Washington, DC, in a bid to identify a government official in Cuba who might “want to cut a deal”.

Trump has also directly threatened Cuba, writing on his Truth Social platform earlier this month: “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

David Smith, an expert in US politics and foreign policy at the University of Sydney’s US Studies Centre, told Al Jazeera that the White House may be “too optimistic” in thinking that threats alone will be enough to topple the Cuban government, which is led by President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
SOURCE: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/22/trump-seeking-regime-change-in-cuba-by-end-of-the-year-us-media-report

Trump says "armada" of warships is headed toward Iran "just in case"
By Eleanor Watson
January 23, 2026 / 1:43 PM EST / CBS News

CBS News
President Trump said Thursday an "armada" of U.S. warships is headed toward the Middle East, as he continues to watch the Iranian regime's response to massive protests that began in late December.

"We have a lot of ships going that direction just in case," Mr. Trump said when he was asked by reporters on Air Force One where things stand with Iran. He said it was a "good sign" Iran had decided not to hang protesters, adding that "we have an armada heading that direction and maybe we won't have to use it."

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its escort ships were in the Indian Ocean as of Friday morning, according to defense officials. The carrier strike group brings about 5,000 sailors and Marines with squadrons of fighter jets, helicopters, and electronic attack aircraft.

The Lincoln was in the Pacific when the president first issued a warning on social media that the U.S. was "locked and loaded" to hit Iran if the regime killed anti-government protesters.

Since the demonstrations began, the Human Rights Activists in Iran), a U.S.-based non-governmental organization, estimates that more than 4,000 protesters have been killed so far and says that number is likely to rise.
Source https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-armada-of-warships-headed-towards-iran/

LordIsaac:
Do you have nuclear weapons and launchers?

Brain54 :
It's called international waters or high sea.You saying Africa, not the countries boardering the oceans shows your deeper confusion on the issue and makes your point more awkward.
After a certain point of nautical miles ( maybe 200 nautical miles. I'm not sure again) from shore a country has no claim over.
International waters put very crudely and for layman's understanding is like no man's land (or sea/water actually).

SmartPolician:
If not for the regards world leaders have for past American presidents and the contributions of the country towards human advancement, world leaders would come together to deal with America once and for all.

wellmax:
Without nukes see what the Arab terrorists are doing. Now close your eyes and imagine they have nuclear weapons

The Nigerian air force will take over from the United States after Washington's Christmas Day strikes against jihadists, relying on American reconnaissance flights to support its own operations, a Nigerian official told AFP on Tuesday.

On Christmas night, the United States struck sites in Sokoto State, in northwestern Nigeria , against what they described as targets linked to the Islamic State group .

Although Nigeria remains open to further US strikes, the primary role of the United States will now be to provide intelligence, the source indicated, familiar with the new security agreement with Washington.

Africa's most populous country has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2009, mainly concentrated in the northeast, while armed gangs known as "bandits" have gained a foothold in vast rural areas of the northwest and north-central parts of the country.

These strikes came after a diplomatic offensive that began in October, during which President Donald Trump claimed that the violence perpetrated by armed groups in Nigeria amounted to "persecution" and "genocide" of Christians — accusations rejected by Abuja and independent analysts.

Partnership
A few days before the strikes, the Nigerian Minister of Information had declared that the "dispute" had been resolved, "resulting in a strengthened partnership between America and Nigeria" .

For several weeks prior to the strikes, analysts had observed an intensification of US reconnaissance flights over Nigeria. These flights have continued since.

The New York Times , citing Pentagon officials speaking on condition of anonymity, recently reported that the US strikes were a "one-off event" .

Although they took place after Nigeria and the United States had at least partially buried the hatchet, these strikes caused headaches in Abuja when Trump unilaterally claimed credit for them.

In response, Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar launched a media offensive, claiming it was a joint operation .

To further complicate matters, US officials remained largely unreachable until days before the strikes, before finally calling their Nigerian counterparts to present their plans, according to the source.
Source: https://www.africanews.com/2026/01/07/nigeria-to-take-over-anti-jihadist-operations-after-us-christmas-strikes/

The next 72 hours are critical — not just for Venezuela, but for the world.
If the United States succeeds in imposing control over Venezuela — and by extension the world’s largest proven oil reserves — it would mark a major shift in global power.

This wouldn’t be about democracy or human rights.

It would be about reasserting strategic dominance over energy, trade routes, and regional alignments.
If that happens, Iran almost certainly moves to the top of Washington’s priority list.

Control over Venezuelan oil would dramatically reduce U.S. vulnerability to disruptions in the Persian Gulf. It would give Washington a buffer against supply shocks if a confrontation with Iran escalates.
In simple terms:

If Gulf infrastructure gets hit, the economic pain is lower.
Lower pain means higher tolerance for escalation.

That also means more leverage over global oil flows and pricing, reinforcing the dollar’s role in energy markets and helping preserve the petrodollar system that underpins U.S. financial power.

At that point, Venezuela stops being a regional issue.
It becomes a strategic precedent — proof that economic pressure, political engineering, and force can be used to restructure sovereign states and reshape the global balance of power.
But there’s another path — and it’s just as important.

If the U.S. gets bogged down in Venezuela, faces sustained resistance, or drifts into a prolonged crisis, the equation flips.
Political capital drains.
Military and economic resources stretch thin.
Power projection elsewhere weakens — especially in the Middle East.
That would also complicate strategic planning for Israel, whose security posture is closely tied to U.S. leverage in the region.

What happens in Venezuela will not stay in Latin America.
It will shape the future of energy control, the limits of American power, and the direction of global confrontation — far beyond Caracas.
Source : https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Bx6Z1iNgU/

Walezy2020:
really what kind of saying is this,& if they claimed we are Jews so be it,

FreeStuffsNG:
You left out the most important part; land mass.


UAE is 86,300 km² while Saudi Arabia is 2,150,000 km²

Land mass makes a lot of difference because nations with small land mass have the assets concentrated in small area whereas countries with large land mass have it spread over large areas which will make it more difficult and costly to attack while each successful attack on countries with small land mass wreaks more havoc. That played out in the US-Isreal war against Iran as each of Iran's successful missile strike on Israel caused more destruction and forced Trump to quickly beg for a ceasefire.

Saudi Arabia should never have been compared to UAE in the first place.