997
By: Usman Habu Biu
The questions people have continued to ask back home in Biu is, what may
have necessitated what was perceived as a betrayal of former Acting
Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, Ambassador
Muhammed Dauda by his very close allies of more than 50 years.
It was rather curious and intriguing to many people that the duo of
Mustapha Shehu, a publisher and media consultant from Biu in Borno State
and Mustapha Betara Aliyu, a retired Deputy Director of the NIA, also from
Biu, could collude to fight their own brother, Ambassador Muhammed Dauda,
also from Biu.
Those who know the three gentlemen are still piqued at what could have gone
wrong to the hitherto cozy relationship between the them. I know as a
matter of fact that MB Aliyu and Muhammed Dauda and Mustapha Shehu were
pals from the cradle, and are not only contemporaries but were always
together when Muhammed Dauda was still the Acting Director General.
I understand that, while Mustapha Shehu was seeking to be engaged as a
media consultant, M B Aliyu wanted his premature retirement from the NIA
reviewed, so that he could enjoy the benefits of a director, having been
retired as a Deputy Director, owing to his failure to pass promotion exams
to the rank of a director three times in a row.
It is common knowledge in the service that MB Aliyu has petitioned
virtually every National Security Adviser from the time of General Aliyu
Gusau and has tried to cajole every Director General since that time,
including Muhammed Dauda, to have his matter reviewed. Perhaps he had hoped
that, Dauda, being his own kinsman will do that for him, but the Acting DG
declined, insisting it was a bad case.
I must confess that I have a fair knowledge of what may have transpired as
both Mustpha Shehu and Mustapha Betara Aliyu used to be my close allies
too, until I found out that I was actually ridding on the back of two
tigers. Dauda may have also came to the same realization, and refused to
appoint MB Aliyu as his SA, contrary to the expectations of many of us who
were regulars around him.
Dauda’s refusal to appoint MB Aliyu as an SA, coupled with the rapid
progress Dauda made even as MB Aliyu’s junior: becoming a Director, an
Ambassador and subsequently the Acting Dg of the NIA, at a time MB Aliyu
could not transcend the position of a Deputy Director, are enough motives
to make MB Aliyu plot to see Dauda’s back at the NIA.
On the other hand, his refusal to hire Mustapha Shehu as Mustapha Shehu’s
request to be his media strategist could have given Shehu enough reason to
gang up against him with others, including MB Aliyu. But beyond the likely
motives for the duo to move against Dauda, is the likely material benefits
they they were said to have derived from their deals with new NIA boss.
If the reports I received to the effect that Shehu and Aliyu have accepted
to manipulate information about Ambassador Dauda’spast which will tend to
further portray Muhammed Dauda in bad light, is anything to go by, it will
be safe to surmise that the duo have a longer agenda than meet the eyes.
Seemingly driven by envy and vendetta against Dauda, one cannot find any
justification for the animousity against Dauda, given that he has not
committed any offence, except for putting in his best and excelling. The
actions of Mustapha Shehu and MB Aliyu which is common knowledge amongst
our people are sad, repugnant and alien to our culture, background and
religion in Biu.
I would have dismissed the assertion that Ambassador Dauda is also being
fought by his own brothers as a mere hoax but for the confirmation from an
insider in the NIA to the effect that our own brothers are at the center of
a sinister campaign to further embattle Muhammed Dauda.
The two, I am made to understand are working in collaboration with an
internal machinery set up by Dauda’s successor, with the brief to clone and
distort Dauda’s history, records and background, so as to further rubbish
him. This I understand is a ploy to compel him withdraw the suit in court
challenging his purported dismissal: an issue that has become worrisome to
the new NIA boss.
Besides the threats to his life, Dauda is also being faced with this new
challenge from his own brothers, both of whom seem to have struck a deal
with the new NIA helmsman, where in Mustapha Shehu’s moribund news magazine
will enjoy a lifeline, while Aliyu’s checkered career history will be
reviewed to give him a soft landing.
Suffice it to say that, the close affinity between Mustapha Shehuand MB
Aliyu stems from their commonality of attitudes and characters. For Shehu,
since his sojourn outside the shores of Nigeria for the Technical Aid Corp,
which gave him the opportunity to also pursue other endeavors, he has
technically kept all his friends, except M B Aliyu, at bay. In the same
vein, MB Aliyu, since his career at the National Intelligence Agency, NIA
became wobbly and eventually ended rather unceremoniously, he has been
leading a life of exclusivity, with friends and even relations. But there
seems a good understanding between the two the basis of which no one knows.
Mustapha Aliyu seems too desperate in his attempt to remove the stigma of
serial failure, having failed all his promotion exams before he was kicked
out of the NIA, and can do anything for any DG who may agree to review his
retirement as Deputy Director. It is understandable how he became an easy
tool to use against Ambassador Dauda, who had refused to play ball. Fresh
facts emerging indicate that in his desperation to force the DG to do his
bidding ,MB Aliyu has now introduced an element of subtle blackmail against
the DG. He told us that ,the DG knows that,as Assistant Director Personnel
under TALBAN KATSINA, Amb. ZY Ibrahim ,he was the one,who on the
instruction of the TALBA single handedly invited,interviewed and processed
the new DG when he transferred his service from katsina state.MB Aliyu told
us that although TALBA was very happy with him for taking that “BOLD”
action of recommending the placement of RUFAI on GL 14 from his GL 12 level
in the katsina state service.This action Aliyu admitted clearly violates
federal civil service Rules which down grade STATE civil Servants one step
down upon transfer to federal civil service ,this action along with his
recommendations to TALBA for waiver of Rufai’s vetting to cover CHAD
Republic where he spent most of childhood,and asked the vetting officer
LATE Mr Agim to only confine his vetting to KATSINA.ALIYU confided in me
that,these action ,although it endeared him to TALBA,made him the most
hated head of personnel ever at the agency till date.”He now strongly
believe it is time for payback”
For Mustapha Shehu, certain traits in his conducts gave him away as one who
could do anything for a price. I recall he sold an idea of a crooked
partnership between him and me to use Major Hamza Al-Mustapha as a conduit
to obtain money from former President Goodluck Jonathan, using the
perceived closeness of Al-Mustapha to the former President.
He offered his medium as a tool we can use to blackmail Mustapha if he
fails to play ball. The offer was very tempting and I nearly fell for it,
given the general clamor then for political jobbers to cajole office
seekers into easily parting with money. But knowing his antecedents I
approached the matter with caution, and had to decline when I realized it
had some elements of blackmail and could land me in trouble.
Shortly after that encounter, he confided in me that he has been offered a
N10 million deal to reconcile a former commissioner and fellow publisher
who has been very critical of a particular State Government with the
Governor. I do not know if he succeeded but I later saw some advertorials
from that same State Governor in his magazine, which were ostensibly part
of the deal.
After carefully analyzing what could possibly be their common grouse
against Muhammed Dauda, I had the strong feeling that Dauda’s sins may be
his refusal to play the nepotism card by drawing Mustapha Shehu and MB
Aliyu into the system. Additionally, they were easy cannons in the hands of
the cabal, which appears ready to pay anything in order to sweep the NIA
issue under the carpet.
Now the difference seemed clear, as my friend who, few weeks ago, was
complaining about how to get fertilizer for his farm, has just embarked on
a globetrotting tour that will take him to four countries.I won’t mind such
instant high paying jobs ooh…
Habu is a long standing ally of the parties and writes from Abuja Nigeria
—