NIA DG, Rufai, resigns for personal, family reasons

Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, director-general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), has resigned. He left his position on Saturday after tendering his resignation to President Bola Tinubu.

Rufai, while briefing State House journalists after submitting his resignation, said he was at the Presidential Villa to brief the President as part of his routine assignment, after which he tendered his resignation.

“It’s a routine thing, from time to time to brief Mr. Presidnet on situations and today is no exception. After the briefing today, actually, I tendered my resignation and Mr. President graciously approved and accepted the resignation,” he said.

The outgoing NIA DG said his resignation was for personal and family matters.

“There are quite a number of reasons one will  do that, some personal, some may be because of family issues. But nothing very serious, actually, and the friendship will continue.

“I discussed with Mr. President, he understood very well, and I promised to remain seized with issues and the security situation of the country.”

Rufai expressed his appreciation to the President for giving him the opportunity to serve Nigeria under his transformational leadership for a period, for an extended period of 15 months, which is very rare.

“So I thanked him very well, and I promised to remain professionally as we professionally dedicated to our country and to noble causes,” he said.

Rufai who disclosed that he had spent about seven years on the job, said he has also mentored others who can do the job.

“This is the seventh year by the way to mentor officers and staff for all the period that I’ve been DG. Now, we have a lot of many officers who can do this job and do it.

“I am very, very grateful for the opportunity that the President gave me, actually to serve the country and his leadership. I appreciate 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 advice and so on.

On the President’s reaction to his resignation, he said he would rather leave that to the President or the National Security Adviser (NSA).

“I think, 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,” he added.