Like Buhari – Like Ribadu By Abdullahi O Haruna Haruspice
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu is not your usual Nigerian elite. Perhaps shaped by the restrained Fulani conservative ethos, he has always come across as reserved, shy and taciturn. Not one for excessive talk, but deeply deliberate. When he presided as Chairman of the EFCC, he delivered outcomes rather than optics. No flamboyance. No grandstanding. Just results.
He is a gentle figure—tall, lanky, almost dove-like in bearing—yet steely where it matters.
In many ways, he mirrors the late Muhammadu Buhari: less rambunctious, less impulsive, but fiercely uncompromising against corruption. Buhari was born in Katsina in the North-West; Ribadu hails from Adamawa in the North-East. Different poles of the North, united by a common creed—the war against corruption.
And that creed became their burden.
It isolated them. It unsettled entrenched interests. It provoked elite discomfort. Buhari endured relentless conspiracy; he was battered, maligned, nearly erased from relevance. His offence? He refused to conform to their indulgent realities.
Ribadu now appears to be walking a similar path.
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He is labelled individualistic. Called dogmatic in principle. Seen as politically unblemished—and therefore dangerous. The strategy seems predictable: gag him, shrink him, frustrate his strides, and render him “unsellable.” Yet, amid this orchestrated resistance, he remains afloat—calmly navigating what looks like a catalogue of premeditated onslaughts.
The anxiety, as whispered in political corridors, is 2031.
The fear is simple: that he could emerge as a presidential contender when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu eventually leaves the Villa. And to prevent that possibility, he must be halted—now.
But one must ask: what exactly is wrong if Ribadu aspires? Does the Constitution forbid ambition? Or is the objection that he is not “blue-blood” enough?
The tragedy of those who impede another’s rise is their audacity to play God. They design elaborate schemes for tomorrow while lacking certainty of the next minute. Mortals puff and pontificate about distant years, forgetting the fragility of breath.
Politics, especially in the North, must learn the discipline of time. Not all seasons are yours. When the moment belongs to another, wisdom demands observation—not sabotage. As I often say: until it is your time, learn to clap for others.
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, now National Security Adviser to the President, deserves the liberty of time. If this is his season, let him breathe in it—just as others savoured theirs when the wheel turned in their favour.
Life is rotational. Time finds everyone—eventually.
Gaskiyally musing.
Haruspice is the Dean of the Musing School of Thoughts and writes from Abuja
