The former army officer who was appointed NSA by Jonathan on March 8, 2010, held the same position during most of the Obasanjo presidency. Before that he was in military Intelligence, and was briefly Army Chief. He resigned in September 2010, handing over to his deputy Kayode Are
According to security experts who should know, Gusau has been one ambitious man whose hunger for power knows no bound. His occasional forays into the rather rough political terrain to run for the highest office in the land, lends credence to this fact. When he did it in 2006 and later in 2010, it was this reason, among others.
Armed with his insider’s knowledge of privileged knowledge of the presidency, coupled with his extensive as a security and intelligence chief, the former NSA boasts of a compendium of who’s who in the military, political and larger Nigerian polity.
He did not hide his disdain for anybody or people that he sees as ill-equipped to lead in any public role. To him, it is either Gusau or no-one else.
Public reactions to his appointment under Jonathan early 2010 as replacement for sacked NSA Muhktar lend credence to this.
In an opinion article published in on-line newspapers, Hissaini Monguno, a public commentator based in Abuja had cause to warn that Gusau may not mean well to the then tottering Acting presidency of Jonathan.
He is arguably Nigeria’s most celebrated spymaster. He is the don of them all. In matters of security and politics, General Aliyu Gusau is way ahead of any soldier alive, or so it seems. He sees himself in self glorification terms and ascribes to himself as the biggest gift God gave to Nigeria’s security. His recent re-appointment by President Goodluck Jonathan has reinforced that image.
In security circles, Aliyu Gusau is viewed in awe and trepidation, with an image of a colossus who is feared and revered almost in equal measure by foes and friends alike. On his way to his current comeback, the fifth in a career spanning almost four decades, Gusau was believed to have used his wide range of connections to undo his immediate successor and predecessor, General Sarki Muktar. It is alleged that he kept telling everybody around the corridors of power who gave him his ear that the man from whom he has now grabbed the coveted office of National Security Adviser was incompetent to hold that office. In a prophetic pronouncement, the removed General Muktar is reported to have said just before he handed over to Gusau that as a human being, he couldn’t have been perfect and that he must have made some mistakes while in office. He appealed for understanding saying that he did everything in good faith”,Monguno wrote.
The rather first public pronouncements of Gusau who was perhaps spoiling to personally let everyone in the land know that the nation’s security direction was in his hands was regarded as bordering mainly on an obsession to pull people down, without stating their areas of guilt.
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“This course of action surprised many because all his professional life he has done his job quietly without pandering to the temptation to seek undue publicity. Those who knew him at close quarters say that Gusau elevated the art of silence while being very effective on the job to a sort of a norm in security matters until this his last coming when he began to expose an inkling to bring others down. He has raised a frightening alarm over the state of affairs in Nigeria. Without as much as arming himself with verifiable facts to support his claims, our national security Czar opened his mouth and uttering garbage and calling to question the integrity of both the CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and EFCC Chairman Farida Waziri,”, Monguno was to further write.
The commentator was reacting to Gusau speech at a seminar organised by his office on security awareness for the then newly appointed ministers, when the NSA literally took Nigeria to the cleaners.
