By Chesa Chesa
The Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmad Rufai Abubakar, has tendered his resignation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, citing personal and family reasons for his decision.
He announced his decisions at the State House on Saturday evening after meeting with the President.
Speaking to journalists afterwards , Abubakar, who was appointed to the position in 2018 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, thanked Tinubu for the opportunity to serve this long and ending up as the longest serving national intelligence chief in Nigeria.
Asked by journalists why he chose to resign now, Abubakar replied: “There are quite a number of reasons one will do that, some personal family issues, but nothing very serious, actually, and the friendship will continue.
“I discussed with Mr. President, he understood very well and I promise to remain with issues and the security situations of the country.”
He expressed pride in mentoring younger officers and ensuring a strong succession plan in the agency, noting that many capable officers have been equipped to excel in heading the agency after him.
“I think it’s not for me to say this, actually, probably I’ll be breaching a protocol but maybe the NSA and or Mr. President himself will say it but what I can tell you is that I’m very grateful for the opportunity that the President gave me to serve the country and his leadership, the encouragement I got, the confidence he had in me and in my service, the opportunity to listen to me, to read briefing notes and advices and so on.
“I think this is for me, everything and I have had the opportunity to mentor officers and staff for all the period I have been DG. This is the seventh year by the way. Now we have a lot of many officers who can do this job and do it excellenty well,” he said.
He stressed: “After the briefing today, actually I tendered my resignation and Mr. President graciously approved and accepted the resignation.
“I thanked him for giving me the opportunity to serve Nigeria under his transformational leadership for a period, for an extended period of 15 months, which is very rare, by the way, to serve, to have the opportunity to serve two Presidents at a stretch, at a go.”
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