Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, a former Nigeria Police officer and pioneer Executive Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is the National Security Adviser (NSA) to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Ribadu takes over from Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd) who has held the office under former President Muhammadu Buhari since 2015.
The appointment, announced via a Presidential statement on Thursday June 15, 2023 alongside seven others, was “with immediate effect.”
On Friday, 14 January 2011, Nuhu Ribadu was adopted as the Presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN), a party floated then by Tinubu. In August 2014, he defected to the then ruling party PDP with the intention to run for the Governorship of Adamawa State.
Born 21 November, 1960, Ribadu, in April 2009, became a visiting fellow at the Centre for Global Development and thereafter lived in exile until 2010 when he returned to Nigeria and declared his intention to run for President of Nigeria under the platform of the CAN.
A graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Ribadu studied law from 1980 until 1983, receiving a Bachelor of Laws degree. Following a year at the Nigerian Law School, he was called to Bar in 1984. He also earned a Master of Laws degree from the same university.
A TED Fellow and a Senior Fellow in St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, UK, President Olusegun Obasanjo, appointed him chairman of EFCC in 2003 and reappointed him in 2007.
Promoted to Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police on 9 April 2007, three weeks before newly elected President Umaru Yar’Adua was sworn-in, Ribadu’s promotion was later challenged on the basis that it was “illegal, unconstitutional, null and void, and of no legal effect.”
In December 2007, Mike Okiro, Inspector-General of Police, stated that Ribadu ordered that Ribadu be temporarily removed from the position of EFCC chairman and ordered him to attend the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State for a mandatory one-year course.
On 4 August 2008, the Police Service Commission in Nigeria announced the demotion of Mr. Ribadu from Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) to Deputy Commissioner of Police.
On 22 November 2008, his graduation from the NIPSS Kuru, Plateau State was aborted at the last minute. He was initially seated in the hall along with other graduands but was ordered out allegedly on orders from top administration officials.
On 8 December 2018, he bagged a global lifetime achievement award on anti-corruption campaign. The award was administered by Qatar-based think-tank, Rule of Law and Anti-corruption Centre (ROLACC).
On 22 December 2008, he was dismissed from the Nigerian Police by the Nigerian Police Service Commission (PSC). He left Nigeria and in April assumed the fellowship at the Centre for Global Development.
Under Ribadu, the EFCC became Nigeria’s leading anti-graft agency, charging prominent bankers, former State Governors, Ministers, Senators, high-ranking political party members, Commissioners of Police, and ‘advance fee fraud’ (“419”) members. The anti-graft body issued thousands of indictments and achieved about 270 convictions. Top was that of the then Inspector General of Nigeria (IGP), Mr Tafa Balogun, who was convicted, jailed and made to return £150 million under a plea bargain.
His efforts also led to the de-listing of Nigeria from the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) List of Non-Cooperative Countries & Territories, and admission of the country into the prestigious Egmont Group and the withdrawal of the US Treasury FINCEN Advisory on Nigeria.
He is a recipient of many awards. For example, on 15 April 2008, Ribadu received the World Bank’s 2008 Jit Gill Memorial Award for Outstanding Public Service, for having led a courageous anti-corruption drive in Nigeria, as Head of EFCC).
