The Northern Emancipation Network, (NEN) has blamed what it called, incessant mediocre attempts to diminish the image of Professor Rufai Abubakar, the current Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), on certain interests who would rather see the continuation of unprofessionalism and decay in the NIA.
A statement signed by NEN’s National Secretary, Suleiman Abbah said the DG’s traducers, actively sponsored by a fugitive former Spy Chief of the NIA, have resorted to unjustifiably accusing him of committing every sin under the sun, including the sanctioning of an errant Radio Programme by a competent body other than the NIA.
In the process, the group said, facts are being shamefully and blatantly reviewed, rewritten and falsified to suit certain agendas that tend to portray the Professor as the wrong guy on the job.
“We are equally concerned and extremely worried that in spite of the studied and dignified reserve of Professor Rufai and refusal to engage in altercations with these self-appointed enemies and antagonists, no stone is being left unturned to see that they unjustifiably brand him unqualified for a job for which he is eminently qualified,” Abbah said.
Saying it insane to adduce incompetence to Rufa’i, NEN recalled that he had a second class upper degree from the Bayero University Kano, (BUK) which in the view of many, was a 1st class denied by the conservative BUK establishment of that time.
Rufai, the Group said, was retained by the University as a graduate assistant from where he was employed by the Katsina State Government and worked in the political department in the Government House.
“The late governor John Madaki instituted an award for hard working, competent civil servants for which Rufa’i was among the first beneficiaries.
“He was headhunted to the NIA from Katsina civil service. He won the prestigious DGs awards three times in the period of his service.
“When he left the NIA on his own accord, he joined the African Union, to kick start a prestigious international career.
“From AU, he moved to the UN where he rose rapidly, holding sensitive positions and working with staff from various nationalities in several mediation efforts in trouble sports; serving as Chief of Staff to the Darfur Mission headed Ambassador Ibn Chambas, Professor Ibrahim Gambari and in 2014-2015, he headed the political unit of the UN in West Africa that oversaw the first-ever change of political baton from a ruling to the opposition in 2015 in Nigeria,” the Group said.
NEN maintained that it amounts to a blatant abuse of ordinary rules of decency and an insult to the collective sensibilities of Nigerians to ascribe incompetence on Professor Rufai, a highly successful international civil servant.
“It is important to point out here, that the DG’s accusers are no more than a band of blackmailers and extortionists masquerading as journalists who he had refused to settle.
“It is also no longer in doubt that these fringe publications are being sponsored by others known to the authorities, including a fugitive from justice in the efforts to bring Rufai down.
“That the aim of the these detractors and their collaborators is to ensure the continuation of the destruction of the NIA as an institution, undermining the nation’s security architecture and encouraging rampant corruption and mistrust by singling him for attacks and irrelevant treatment,” is also not in doubt,” the statement read.
