Cleaners, fumigators and other workmen were hard at work at No 13 Beira Crescent, in the Wuse II area of Abuja yesterday. This is where Nuhu Ribadu, former anti-graft boss, is setting up a campaign office in line with his bid to run for president in 2011.

Although Mr. Ribadu is yet to announce an alignment with any particular political party and has not publicly declared his intentions to run, it is only a matter of days before he does that now, his aides told NEXT yesterday.

He has not yet declared but will do that soon," said Chido Onumah, media assistant to the former EFCC boss. "This is the presidential campaign office and it should be ready in a couple of days. It will be the hub of operations for his bid to run for president."

Mr. Onumah also said that his team has recruited a group of professionals who will undertake several positions in the new office. Mr. Ribadu is widely touted as the preferred candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN). "It is not certain what political platform Mr. Ribadu will be running under but he has been approached by several parties," said Mr. Onumah. "He is currently consulting widely with other politicians and groups. At the end of the day, he will sit back and decide which political platform fits into his plans and visions."

The ACN, however, insists that Mr. Ribadu is yet to formally join the party and therefore cannot be considered a prospective presidential candidate. "I am not aware that Nuhu Ribadu has joined the party," said Lai Mohammed, the party spokesperson.

For me, Ribadu is making the greatest mistake in his life by joining politics now, He is a professional and should develop first before joining politics. He will end up like Soludo.

If am in his shoe I will take the candid advice of El Rufia not to contest, especially against GEJ

I rest my case

So what is so great of a news about it?

saintchux:

For me, Ribadu is making the greatest mistake in his life by joining politics now, He is a professional and should develop first before joining politics. He will end up like Soludo.

If am in his shoe I will take the candid advice of El Rufia not to contest, especially against GEJ

I rest my case

How did Soludo end?

He lost an election mate? That is not the end of the world. It is natural that someone will win and someone will loose. There is nothing wrong if Ribadu looses.

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spearman:

For our democracy to advance we have to encourage candidates who run on vital principles against great odds even with little or no chance of winning. The lack of such is responsible for the opportunism which we mistake for participatory democracy. It cannot always be about winning.

Spot on!

saintchux:

For me, Ribadu is making the greatest mistake in his life by joining politics now, He is a professional and should develop first before joining politics. He will end up like Soludo.

If am in his shoe I will take the candid advice of El Rufia not to contest, especially against GEJ

I rest my case

how old is Ribadu?
how old is Soludo?
how old is GEJ?
how old is Obama?

how old is Cameron?

spearman:

For our democracy to advance we have to encourage candidates who run on vital principles against great odds even with little or no chance of winning. The lack of such is responsible for the opportunism which we mistake for participatory democracy. It cannot always be about winning.

Where are these candidates?

I hope Ribadu runs under a new party. For what he stands for, its best to give the existing ones a very wide berth.

Mckren, where have you been? Its been quite an age since the last time you posted a comment. Anyways, welcome back.

Sounds real good.  Ribadu is a man of integrity whose actions and example would trickle down to the society in a substancial way in the course of four years or eight years. Don't know his stand on religion, his idea on building an economy, his view on foreign policy, etc. But  his view on corruption cannot be questioned.  I just hope he has the best intentions for Nigeria in his inner mind.  
 Good luck should leave PDP and conduct this election himself without making a buzz about it. He should be a leader even in this short time and play absolute neutrality but also as a next generation who will stand for a principled Nigeria. Good luck should focus on supervising  the economy, security, power supply, the coming election, etc and stop signing new bills when he should be mainly inspecting older bills and calling corrupt contractors bluff especially contractors and senators and also calling for an investigation by the EFCC.  
  With Goodluck on the sideline; There should be five national debates in all cardinal points and then the capital. Eg one in JOS, one in Lagos, one in Delta, one in Kaduna,  and the final one in abuja. Held on any university campus in each of those states (not palaces).

Do you guys really want a president that will bail out when things get tough?

Big B1:

Do you guys really want a president that will bail out when things get tough?

Funny .

Does Ribadu seem like the type to bale out? The answer has to be a firm no.
Time and circumstance place GEJ as the man, but I rate Ribadu very highly.

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open your eyes.  Ribadu will not be in the race to become a president but rather to balance the oppositioning in Nigerian politics, look very well, Nigerian politics remains one man show PDP PDP PDP PDP, almost everything is PDP no strong oppositions. People like Ribadu contesting will make weaker parties to have more representitives, hence, giving the ruling party headache in executing self serving interest. Remeber when two elephants are fighting the grass suffer, in contrary, when political parties are engage and felt to sattle disputes of personnel interest the citizens ripe the benefit. Example, Obasanjo's Third term agender, when Atiku fought back it wasn't at national interest but personal and the repercussion remains national benefit. Today Nigeria would have become likes of cameroun.
                                                                                 So, people like Ribadu should be giving courage to participate in todays politics to change the image of our politics,