Yet, his major contribution to the anti-corruption crusade was his selflessness, resilience and exemplary conduct in his spirited fight against the cankerworm.
With uncommon commitment and dedication to duty, Mr Ribadu worked assiduously to clean the Augean stable created by graft and fraud.
He courageously brought to book hundreds of fraudsters, scores of high profile looters and economic saboteurs in spite of temptation, booby traps and threats to life.
In three years, the EFCC, under his leadership, built the now most celebrated Crimes Training and Research Institute in the West African region. The agency also recorded over 200 criminal convictions under his leadership.
In acknowledgement of these rare achievements, Mr Ribadu was promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), in March 2007.
The African Union (AU) put him on its advisory board on anti-corruption matters; and he was invited to join the advisory board of the Friends of the World Bank/UNODC initiative on Stolen Asset Recovery.
Ribadu is a recipient of several awards as a police officer, prosecutor and chairman of the EFCC. He received the Inspector General of Police Awards in 1997, 1998 and 2000, and the Special Commendation of the President in 2005, for the successful prosecution of several advanced fee fraud cases, banking fraud and sundry economic crimes.
He was also specially commended by the Accountant General of the Federation for successfully prosecuting some corrupt public servants in 1999.
Since 2004, notable newspapers and magazines in Nigeria have repeatedly voted Mr Ribadu as Man of the Year, in recognition of his outstanding achievements as a committed crusader against corruption and other related crimes.
In 2008, Ribadu completed the senior executive course of the Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies where he was conferred with the Membership of the National Institute, MNI.
In June 2010, Mr Ribadu was awarded the Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) by the Babcock University, Ogun State, in recognition of his “resolute courage” as well as his “fierce stance against corruption in the face of sponsored disgrace and certain death that has resulted into positive changes and global acclaim hitherto considered impossible.”
In 2012, Ribadu left a United Nations assignment in Afghanistan to take up a special inquest into government’s revenue from the oil sector, an assignment he handled with his characteristic passion and dexterity, turning in a report that has since become a reference point on reforming Nigeria’s oil industry.
In his quest for higher call to service, Ribadu has since 2010 made a foray into active politics. He was named NSA on 19 June, 2023, days after he was appointed Special Adviser on Security by the President.
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