Nigeria Content Online

The National
Security Adviser to the President, Aliyu Gusau, has resigned his
appointment. The retired army general is expected to apply to the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today in order to run as a presidential
candidate in the October primaries.

Although President
Goodluck Jonathan accepted his resignation over the weekend, sources
revealed yesterday that Mr. Gusau’s resignation letter was originally
submitted in July. According to a security source, Mr. Jonathan did not
ratify the resignation until after his declaration on Saturday, two
months after he received it.

Campaigns start

The source added
that both men met on Friday after it became clear that Mr. Gusau was
preparing to declare his intent to run for the presidency.

“Gusau’s
resignation letter has been sitting on the president’s desk since
July,” the source said. “In that time, he has carried on with his
duties normally until last week when PDP released the timetable.
Obviously, this has not given him much time to prepare his campaign but
he still had to act,” the source said.

Mr. Gusau’s deputy, Kayode Are, is expected to be named as the interim security adviser this week.

“The de-briefing was already done on Friday and handover notes will be sent to Col. Are by next week.” the source added.

The former army
general confirmed his exit in a brief telephone conversation yesterday.
He was, however, reticent about his future plans.

“It was the right
thing to do for my family,” he said. “As for the future we leave
everything to the will of Almighty God,” he said.

Mr. Gusau’s
resignation and its acceptance by Mr. Jonathan has put paid to all the
speculations that have been in the air about a month ago over his plans.

President Jonathan
had appointed Mr. Gusau as security adviser during the political crisis
that rocked the nation following the late President Yar’Adua’s ill
health and prolonged absence from office.

Mr. Gusau, who was
first named NSA in 1993 during the military rule of Ibrahim Babangida,
is resigning at a time wjhen the race for the presidency has kicked off
in full force. It is, however, unclear whether he is going to join
forces with Mr. Babangida, his former boss, or go it alone to seek the
nomination of the party.

PDP coalition

On Friday, Mr.
Gusau signed an agreement with three other PDP aspirants, Abubakar
Atiku, Mr. Babangida, and Bukola Saraki in which they vowed to present
a single presidential candidate from the north.

Mr. Gusau was
recalled as NSA during the Olusegun Obasanjo regime and in April, this
year, Mr. Jonathan appointed him for the fifth time to serve in the
same capacity, taking over from Sarki Mukhtar.

In 2007, he had planned to run in the PDP presidential primaries.

His resignation is one of many expected in the days ahead following Mr. Jonathan’s declaration of intent on Saturday.