As a retired officer of the National Intelligence Agency, it gives me no pleasure to join issues with a former colleague who has chosen to persist on a misguided mission to literally incinerate an organization that means the world to me. Like several of his former colleagues, I have watched in horror and disbelief as Ambassador Mohammed Dauda has waged a scorched earth assault on a vital national institution and its leadership in ways that raise the dangerous spectre of an unhinged fellow untroubled by any conceivable standard of decency and sound judgement.
For this evidently disgruntled officer, there are no off-limits. For him, the inner workings of a secret organization that he worked for, the reputation of its leaders and even former colleagues who had no hand in his self-inflicted travails, are fair game to feed his vengeful anger. Staying silent will make me complicit in a vile and cynical effort to eviscerate the reputation of an organization that has been earned by the collective sweat and sacrifice of past and present leaders and operatives, a group I feel proud to belong to. Because silence can seem like acquiesce, I choose to speak out now.
It is a sad irony that Ambassador Dauda’s brief but unheralded stint as acting Director-General of NIA, his subsequent melt down and descent into infamy are tragically linked. It all started when the government that appointed him acting Director-General, in its wisdom, asked him to step down to allow for the appointment of a substantive helmsman for the organization.
For normal people, certainly for disciplined, professional officers, that would be the end of the matter, as it should be. After all, the government has the prerogative to appoint and to dismiss.
Apparently, my former colleague’s sense of entitlement cannot countenance the effrontery of government asking him to step down from his acting position. Since then, he has lashed out at anything and anyone in his sight, a weird reaction that proves he was spectacularly unsuited for the delicate work of intelligence in the first place. Not to talk of acting as Director-General, no matter how brief this was.
Those of us who had worked with Ambassador Dauda and can claim to know him are shocked and appalled at his tragic transformation from a quiet and non-descript officer into a villain.
Were there clues –inordinate ambition, psychological maladjustment etc. – that could have warned us but which we missed in our active service years? No one knows for sure when and how he came unhinged, but the consensus is that the non-confirmation of his acting appointment might have unleashed the inner demons in him.
I, like others, have watched in horror and bewilderment as our former colleague, despite having briefly headed the NIA, apparently does not see any harm in exposing vivid details of the inner workings and clandestine operations of the Agency. That, to all former colleagues I have spoken to, is a colossal misjudgement that calls to question his professional bona fides. Even worse, it is hard to believe that Ambassador Dauda does not know that unauthorized disclosure of the clandestine activities of the NIA, which he has brazenly indulged in since 2018 when he was removed from office, is treasonous. That he would seemingly appear to revel in this criminal and unpatriotic conduct is astonishing for someone who likes to boast about his professional “accomplishments.”
In a cynical attempt at personal redemption, this renegade officer, on 23rd June, 2023, penned an incoherent piece eponymously titled “Re: Mohammed Dauda Unmasking the Face Behind Frivolous NIA Petitions: The Right to Reply” in which he repeated old lies, invented new and more outlandish lies about the Agency, her leadership, and former colleagues. For sure, Ambassador Dauda is entitled to defend whatever is left of his reputation, but that right does not include the wilful audacity to invent alternative facts and lies about an organization he cannot claim monopoly of insider knowledge.
As all scoundrels do, this former colleague proudly wears the patriot pin on his lapel and boastfully advertises himself as a “loyal and dedicated officer of the National Intelligence Agency,” even as he thrashes the same Agency as a cesspool of “ineptitude, nepotism, impunity, tyranny and administrative rascality.” As someone who spent a fulfilled lifetime career in the same NIA that this former colleague continually slanders with perverse pleasure, my heart bleeds for its dedicated staff who continue to do incredibly dangerous but important work for our country. I must restate that Ambassador Dauda does not know the NIA any more than several of his former colleagues now peacefully enjoying their well-deserved retirement.
Because several of his former colleagues spent all of their service years doing the hard work of intelligence right from inside the Agency while he was jumping from one sinecure outside posting to another, Ambassador Dauda’s negative characterization of the NIA can only reflect the jaundiced assessment of an officer who, while in service and for reasons of personal gratification, chose to operate from the periphery. Several of his former colleagues who are “patriotic, loyal and dedicated” – qualities he wrongfully appropriated for himself – continue to render service in retirement, mentoring, inspiring, and teaching the new generation, literally passing on the touch.
Ambassador Dauda must not be allowed to damage the NIA and impugn the character and reputation of its leadership any more than he has already done. Which is why I join former colleagues to strongly reject his false characterization of an organization we ourselves know too well as unbelievably efficient and professionally well-run. This is no exaggerated claim. The NIA is arguably one of Nigeria’s best run public institutions. Ambassador Dauda knows this for a fact, but he would rather mischaracterize, demonize, and defame the NIA and its leadership because the truth about the organization will not serve his vengeful agenda.
A free civic lesson for my former colleague: A “patriotic, loyal and dedicated” officer, which he claims he is, think and do more of what is good for their country and less of self-aggrandisement. Second, for “patriotic, loyal and dedicated officers,” the Oaths of Allegiance and Secrecy are sacrosanct and ingrained in their DNA, even in retirement. Patriotic officers are acutely aware that secrecy is at the heart of the intelligence business; they are instinctively protective of their organization, mindful that unauthorized disclosures of the inner workings of a clandestine organization – which is what the NIA is – can expose the capabilities and vulnerabilities of the organization to foreign adversaries. To think that this former intelligence operative has been orchestrating this show of shame from the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, potentially hostile environments, as we say in the business, is simply mindboggling. What kind of vengeful, misdirected vendetta could possibly blind a veteran Intelligence Officer to these dangers?
I might be angry at Ambassador Dauda’s mischiefs, but I like to emphasize that I am in no way opposed to his right to seek redress from the legal system, if he so believes he was wrongfully dismissed from service. That is his constitutional right as a citizen. What I and his former colleagues strongly oppose are his misguided, dangerous, and self-serving campaign to eviscerate the NIA, expose its inner workings and putting at risk the safety of its dedicated staff just to gratify his ego.
Prior to penning this rebuttal, I consulted with some of the pioneer leaders and several retired senior officers who variously built and nurtured a culture of professional excellence in the NIA. All are understandably scandalized and angry at the unprofessional conduct of Ambassador Dauda. Without exception, these pioneer leaders demanded an end to what several of them called “conduct unbecoming of an NIA Officer.” Sadly, this “madness” will continue unless the government quickly steps in and hold anyone, including serving and retired operatives and their collaborators that reveal, circulate or publish classified information, accountable for their actions.
Sensitive intelligence information is classified for good reason, and the justification is that their protection is essential to the security of the nation. If the Federal Government should continue to be paralyzed by a failure of will to punish leakers of secret information, such pernicious adjudication of duty can only embolden bad actors, both in the Security and Intelligence Community and among the general public. Ultimately, Nigeria would be badly served if leakers of secret information and their collaborators, including the media, are allowed a free pass to imperil the work and safety of organizations and their personnel that are engage in dangerous but important work for our country.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, President George W. Bush underscored the imperative of secrecy in the intelligence business when he asserted: “any sources and methods of intelligence will remain guarded in secret. My administration will not talk about how we gather intelligence, if we gather intelligence, and what intelligence says. That’s for the protection of the American people.” Anyone listening?
Oladotun Tajudeen writes from Abuja
