The Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, has tendered his resignation to President Bola Tinubu after about seven years in the position.
The action took many by surprise in a country where it is rare for public officials to resign from office.
The NIA DG was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking to journalists after tendering his resignation letter, last night, Abubakar said that the President had accepted the resignation, describing his action as a routine thing.
He said, “ It’s a routine thing, from time to time, to brief Mr. President on situations and issues. Today is no exception. After the briefing actually, I tendered my resignation and Mr. President graciously approved and accepted the resignation.
“I thanked him for allowing me to serve Nigeria under his transformational leadership for an extended period of 15 months, which is very rare, by the way, to have the opportunity to serve two presidents at a stretch at a go.
“So I thanked him very well, and I promised to remain professionally dedicated to our country and to noble causes.
Asked why he tendered his resignation which is very rare for people to do in the country, he said, “There are quite several 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 promised to remain seized with issues and the security situations of the country.”
Asked about the reaction of the President when he tendered his resignation, Abubakar said:
“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, 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 pieces of advice and so on.
“I think this for me, is everything and I have had the opportunity to mentor officers and staff for all the period that I have been DG. This is the seventh year by the way and the opportunity to mentor officers and staff for all the period that I’ve been DG.
“This is the seventh year, by the way, and the opportunity to mentor younger officers to come up, and now we have a lot of many officers who can do this job and do it excellently well.”