May 25, 2026
Ribadu
By Suleiman A. Suleiman
In the first instalment of this series last week, I made three points. First, I argued, against the grain, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent creation of a parallel Special Adviser on “Homeland Security” is not an administrative or operational adjustment. It is, I said, a purely political move that signals the fall of Nuhu Ribadu, and the elevation of General Famadewa.
Secondly, I argued that Ribadu had not studied or understood enough the precipitous nature of the office he still nominally occupies, but practically and politically no longer does. Over time, the position of National Security Adviser has evolved to become one of the most powerful but also most unpredictable offices in Nigerian politics and governance. Had Ribadu fully taken the import of this chequered history of the office into consideration, I said, his approach to the job might have been different, and he probably would have avoided plenty of the unforced errors that eventually combined to strip him of his power.
