Ribadu joined the Nigerian Police Force shortly after graduation and held the positions of Assistant Superintendent of Police, Nigeria Police Force, January 1, 1986; Divisional Crime Officer for Ajegunle, Mushin, Apapa from 1990 to 1997; Force CID. AIagbon Close, Ugos; dep. Superintendent of Police, 1992; Superintendent of Police, 1995; Chief Superintendent of Police, 1998; asst comm. of Police, 2002; Head, Legal and Prosecution Department, NPF.
On 20 October 2006, Nuhu Ribadu told the BBC that over 380 billion dollars had been stolen or wasted by Nigerian governments since independence in 1960.[9]
Under Ribadu's administration, the EFCC charged prominent bankers, former state governors, ministers, Senators, high-ranking political party members, even the head of the Nigerian police.[10]
The EFCC issued thousands of indictments and achieved about 270 convictions during his stint in office. One notable case was that of his boss, the then Inspector General of the Nigerian Police Force, Tafa Balogun, who was convicted, jailed and made to return £150 million under a plea bargain.[11]
During the course of his duty Ribadu was offered bribes to pervert the course of justice, amongst these was a State governor who offered Ribadu $15 million and a house abroad.[12] Interviewed from Washington D.C. on the BBC's Hardtalk, Ribadu said that he took the money and used the bribe as evidence to prosecute the state governor.[13] This claim has however been refuted by the ex-governor who claimed that the fact that Ribadu put the money in the CBN is not a proof that he gave the money.[14] Ribadu escaped two assassination attempts in Nigeria before he left the country for the United Kingdom in early 2009.[15]
Less than 2 months before the end of the Obasanjo administration, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Inspector General of Police.[16]
The promotion on 9 April 2007, was later challenged on the basis that it was "illegal, unconstitutional, null and void, and of no legal effect."[17]
In December 2007, Mike Okiro, Inspector-General of Police, stated that Ribadu would be removed as EFCC chairman and sent on a one-year training course.[18]
In December 2007, Inspector-General of Police Mike Okiro 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) in Kuru, Jos, Plateau State for a mandatory one-year course.[18] The decision was criticised by, among others, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, House of Representatives members, and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) national chairman Edwin Ume-Ezeoke as politically motivated and/or likely to set back the fight against corruption.[19]
Exile and return
On 22 December 2008, as widely predicted, he was dismissed from the Nigerian Police force by the Nigerian Police Service Commission (PSC). He left Nigeria and in April assumed a fellowship at the Center for Global Development.[20] He 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 Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) political party.
Entry into politics
Ribadu returned to Nigeria and joined opposition ACN as the presidential candidate on 14 January 2011. Tinubu had campaigned for a merger between the ACN and the CPC, but the plan failed due to Ribadu’s refusal to step down for CPC candidate Muhammadu Buhari. After the merger talks collapsed, Tinubu decided to choose Ribadu’s running mate for the April presidential elections.[21]
Shortly after Jonathan won the election, Ribadu joined a six-man UN monitoring team tasked with auditing Afghanistan’s governance, the third most corrupt country in the world. The committee aimed to reduce corruption in Afghanistan. While on this international assignment, the Jonathan administration asked him to chair the Petroleum Special Revenue Task Force, tasked with improving accountability in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.[22]
In August 2014, he defected to the ruling party PDP with the intention to run for the Governorship of Adamawa State, Nigeria.[23] He later joined the ruling APC and contested for governorship of Adamawa in 2019 and 2023,[24] he became a close confidant of Bola Tinubu during the presidential campaign.
National Security Adviser
Ribadu was appointed by President Bola Tinubu as National Security Adviser on 19 June 2023.[25] In March 2024, Ribadu oversaw the arrest and detention of two employees of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, including a former United States Internal Revenue Service agent, for Binance's alleged role in market manipulation that led to a drop in value of Nigerian currency.[26]
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