- from NigerianEcho, with agency reports -

The decision of former anti-graft Czar and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Presidential candidate, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to accept the offer to head the 21-member petroleum revenue special task force may be the beginning of the end of romance with the political platform with which he sought the mandate of Nigerians in the last Presidential election in April.

There are strong indications that Ribadu may have long fallen out with the leadership of the party after his dismay outing in the last Presidential election. Some Ribadu’s die-hard followers believe the leadership of the ACN was deceptive and did not demonstrate commitment to the presidential aspiration of the former police officer cum anti-graft Czar. Some analysts believe Ribadu was sold out in the southwest by the leadership of the ACN considering the overwhelming results posted by President Goodluck Jonathan in the election. Apart from Osun state where Ribadu managed to scored 25% of total votes cast, the remaining five states of the southwest under the control of the ACN were won by President Jonathan; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate. In Lagos where Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is effectively a political kingpin, Ribadu was comprehensively trounced by President Jonathan.

The backlash of the election in the southwest may not be the only reason why Ribadu distanced himself from the ACN soon after the election. A school of thought suggests that the former Presidential candidate may have concluded that the PDP would be a better platform to seek the mandate of the Nigerian people in 2015 or 2019 when power would return to the north after President Jonathan. This school of thought sees Ribadu as more likely a candidate to be picked by the PDP considering that Atiku Abubakar with age would have given up his presidential bid in post-Jonathan era. Another reason seen as a possible attraction for Ribadu’s decision to team up with Jonathan as a prelude to returning to the PDP is that his allies in the Obasanjo’s regime are back with Jonathan. With the return of Okonjo-Iweala as the arrow head of the economic team of the Obasanjo’s regime, Ribadu is believed to be under pressure to return to the fold. The appointment of Ibrahim Lamorde as EFCC acting chairman as substantive chairman-designate is seen as one major indicators that the Obasanjo’s team has been fully mobilized to play leading roles in Jonathan’s administration. The possible return of Oby Ezekwesili who recently resigned as the head of Africa’s team at the World Bank is also believed to be in the pipeline. Ezekwesili is due to finally disengage from the World Bank in May, 2012. Notwithstanding, Mallam Nasir el -Rufai who was a major pillar of the Obasanjo’s team is now with the CPC and currently features as a major and vociferous critic of Jonathan administration.
Ribadu who is in Afghanistan where he is currently working as a member of the United Nations team evaluating the governance system in the Middle Eastern country was appointed as chairman of the newly constituted 21-member petroleum revenue special task force designed to enhance probity and accountability in the operations of Nigeria’s petroleum industry by President Jonathan on Tuesday.

As expected, Ribadu’s appointment has generated mixed reactions among as those in the opposition camp felt the former EFCC boss shouldn’t have accepted the offer because of his strong campaign against corruption. But Ribadu in a statement issued Wednesday from Afghanistan, said his decision to answer the “national call” is a “very personal, freeing all affiliations [social and political] of complicity” so as to enable him contribute his quota to the fight against corruption in Nigeria. According to Ribadu, “the history of my life is a history of public service, and if we cast a honest gaze back to the recent protests in the wake of the oil subsidy removal, it will be clear to all that the biggest single victory Nigerians scored was to put the question of corruption squarely back on the top of our national policy agenda.”

Sounding philosophical, Ribadu argued that “regardless of our affiliations, our differences, and our engagements, it is at least safe to say that we have a national consensus on the deadly impact of corruption on our march to greatness, and on the capacity of our people, particularly the youth, to earn a decent, promising, life”. Alluding persuasive argument to support his decision, the former EFCC boss noted that “If we would effectively isolate and defeat this scourge therefore, we must all see it as a preeminent national security threat. We must see it as a war within our borders, a war that has assumed a systemic and endemic character, but to which all must now urgently enlist with our different capacities, or accept to all go down with the ship.”

Ribadu also informed that he agreed to serve “to enable me invest my modest talents and capacities to my country what I have readily offered many foreign communities, from sister nations in Africa to far flung places like Afghanistan.” According to him, “this, if nothing, makes my decision very personal, freeing all affiliations [social and political] of complicity, but investing the decision also with the unique character that when people reach evaluations in favour of their larger communities, it doesn’t necessarily blemish their moral identity.”

Ribadu in the statement titled: ‘When the Nation Calls’, noted that since the announcement of his appointment was made by the Presidency on Tuesday, “he was greeted to numerous calls” sought to assuage the feelings of his supporters and admirers by insisting that “the assignment is a national call. In answering it, I go back to the template of my own parents who taught me that honest public service is the greatest asset a person can offer his community. It was the same lesson I learnt from his biographical example when my own father returned home as a federal legislator in Lagos to take job as a local council official in Yola – its all about the community, and it is sometimes bigger than our personal egos.”

It would be recalled that Ribadu unceremoniously left for the Afghanistan assignment shortly after he lost the last Presidential election in April 2011. By virtue of his role as the Presidential candidate of the ACN, party stalwarts has expected Ribadu to identify with the party to provide viable opposition to the PDP. He was neither active within the party nor make useful contributions to democratic engagement as expected from a former Presidential candidate until the appointment on Tuesday. The ACN in a statement has dissociated the party from Ribadu’s appointment noting that the former Presidential candidate was on his own in the new assignment. The ACN said that the appointment was deceptive and that it could not “in good conscience” work with the Jonathan administration because it had demonstrated that it could not be trusted. The party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that Ribadu was on his own. The statement also affirmed ACN position “barring its members from accepting appointments from the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government”.

did he win in his ward in adamawa, just wondering,

Political liability, I would say,

he is a victim of yoruba betrayal and he is still angry with tinubu/ACN's last minute betrayal which opportunist AWO dished ikemba during the biafra revolution.this is a big warning to those who will want to pitch their tents with the Yoruba people.you cannot trust them even the north knows that.Am sure Ribadu has learnt his lesson.

he is a victim of yoruba betrayal

Yoruba betrayal made him lose even in his own ward, I beg try another,

Guys should learn how to crawl before running. Why not start from Rep or Senate bf going for presidency?

If this is true, I say: "Behold thy next president after GEJ!".

Re: Ribadu May Dump Acn To Return To Pdp(acn!i Dey Laugh Ooooooo Hahahahahah!)

Was he a member of PDP before?