Despite attempts to frustrate by some big wigs from the North-west, the cabals who say “let’s see how he does it”, those who are against peaceful coexistence, and those fighting him because he hails from the North-east, and because he has dismantled their lucrative insecurity ventures, which they use as a cash cow, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu delivered the job in 18 months, achieving what took years and seemed impossible.
The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, who was highly recommended based on his antecedents as the man who always gets the job done, is the first non-military strategist who outmaneuvered the forces of insecurity, a peacemaker who worked in partnership with many patriotic security agents, individuals to bring stability to the bandits ravaged North-west where the military had struggled in vain.
Ribadu’s trail of triumphs in tackling the security compromises he inherited has set him apart. It’s easy to see how his background as a specialised police officer, lawyer, and fearless investigator and prosecutor of financial crimes has eased him into the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in just one year.
Ribadu assumed the ONSA at a time when kidnapping by unknown gunmen was rampant in the South-East, with a high level of oil thefts, cultism in the South-South, herders crisis in the North-central, Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east, and banditry in the North-west, which underscored the criminal enterprise of terrorists who had the nation to ransom.
All thanks to the experience of Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer chief executive of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), who understands that to get to the root of the security compromises, one must follow the money trail linked to these crimes against the state.
This approach is not surprising from a game-changer under whose watch EFCC recorded over 200 criminal convictions, making it the most respected anti-corruption agency in Nigeria’s history and a model for many governments around the world. Delivering a public lecture at the Combined Convocation Ceremony of Usmanu Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto, in April, Ribadu explained the doctrine that has defined his approach to solving the nation’s multifaceted security crisis. He argued that the way forward is unorthodox.
The solution involves implementing a strategy that merges military, political, and socio-economic initiatives, emphasising the need for cross-border cooperation, youth empowerment, and the reinforcement of local institutions. Achieving this requires inclusive dialogue, preventive measures, and regional support to ensure security and stability.
The doctrine has driven Ribadu’s engagements with regional and community stakeholders. For example, in the Niger Delta, it has helped increased crude oil production by over 500,000 barrels per day. In the Southeast, more than 40 police stations destroyed by criminals in recent years have been rebuilt and reactivated.
Additionally, the sit-at-home order by secessionist elements is now at its weakest, regularly ignored by residents once held hostage by it. The dreaded and Abuja-Kaduna road, which was a highway to the den of bandits and kidnappers, is now passable, as people travel on it daily without fear of being kidnapped. Ribadu has ensured improved operations through intelligence gathering and sharing, leading to targeted actions that have resulted in a deadly blow to bandits, with the most significant impact in one year since the banditry began, and high-profile leaders eliminated.
In the North-west, bandit leaders have been decimated, with many others arrested. Abubakar Mainok, Haruna Isiya Boderi, and Kachallah Damina are among the ISWAP kingpins neutralised in clearance operations to secure the Abuja-Kaduna expressway, and the Turji faction is on the run in Scarborough after the killing of his son. In the North-central, the intensity of farmer-herder clashes has considerably reduced.
The North-east, which has long endured the ravages of Boko Haram, is now seeing not only stability but also efforts towards reconstruction and rehabilitation to restore its former glory, with people returning to their homes and farms.
President Bola Tinubu, desirous of achieving his goal of 2.06 million barrels of crude oil per day as stated in the 2025 budget, recognises that there must be peace in the Niger Delta, and to achieve this, the master strategist, Nuhu Ribadu, has been tasked with heading the reconciliation team in Ogoniland.
The NSA is not a typical political elite but an embodiment of love, peace, compassion, and vision, who is being loved by all and sundry for his personality as a beacon of transformational leadership. If you take a journey to Adamawa state and ask people in the street, they will give you the best definition of Ribadu’s persona, but he is being hated by a few individuals from the North who are in awe of his performance.
It’s barely two years since he assumed office, and the Nigerian government has successfully secured the release of over 6,000 hostages, neutralised over 9,500 terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers, and arrested more than 7,000 others. Large quantities of assorted weapons and ammunition have also been recovered.
The rapid responses to rescue operations, from the freeing of the Kuriga schoolchildren to the release of students abducted from the Federal University of Gusau, and the recent rescue of Kogi students coordinated by ONSA, will go down in history as defining moments of Ribadu’s first year as NSA.
To neutralise the economic threats to Nigeria’s sovereignty, Ribadu participated in operations to enforce action against the culprits, particularly Binance, a serial offender in several countries, in accordance with the nation’s laws. Pursuing offenders with links to trans-border terrorism is a familiar terrain for him, and he is aided by his distinguished international network and reputation. Ribadu has utilised his international network to track trans-border terrorists and their financiers.
You can’t keep a good man down. Hate him or like him for whatever reason. He is just different, bent in ensuring Nigeria and Nigerians are safe, protected and development takes the centre stage of our country’s economy. Enough of this hatred by some disgruntled politicians who had their time and ended it in shame. These politicians have resorted to campaign of calumny, hired merchants of hate speeches against the workaholic Ribadu.
It’s high time Nigerians rose against these political bandits and brewers of disunity and anti progress of our dear nation using all forms of tactics to destroy the country’s image of their gullible interests of wanting to be in power at all times, amassing wealth for themselves and their generation. I call them to a table of unity in the interest of everyone in Nigeria, else they should let Nuhu Ribadu breath.
