By Mohammed Bello Doka
May 12, 2026
Let no one insult our intelligence with the official narrative. The presidency has triumphantly announced that NSA Nuhu Ribadu remains in office and that the newly created Special Adviser on Homeland Security is merely there to "strengthen coordination." This is gaslighting of the highest order. And the most painful part? We warned Ribadu, but he did not listen. Gradually, the chicken is coming home to roost.
Let me be perfectly clear: On February 24, 2026, I published an article titled "AFP's French Dagger: Is Tinubu Finally Dumping Ribadu As A Convenient Scapegoat?" In that piece, I wrote the following prediction—now chillingly vindicated:
"Ribadu's trapped in a no-win nightmare: Heads, he gets axed as the fall guy for a kidnapping plague that's devoured 4,777 souls in Tinubu's first year... Tails, he clings on, his loyalty chained by the very crime—ransom payments—that could land him 15 years... Tinubu's game thrives... Ribadu's fate? Sealed. Dumped or damned, he's toast."
I further warned that Tinubu "wields his blade with Machiavellian precision—slashing through allies the moment they outlive their usefulness." Today, that blade has fallen. The only surprise is the method: not a public firing, but a bureaucratic neutering.
The office is called National Security Adviser for a reason—not International Security Adviser. The fact that Ribadu is now being publicly relegated to handling "international engagements" and "foreign intelligence liaison" means two things, each more damning than the last.
One: Ribadu has failed nationally. The AFP exposé of February 23, 2026—which we documented in detail—alleged that Ribadu orchestrated a multimillion-dollar helicopter ransom payment to Boko Haram to free 230 schoolchildren abducted from St. Mary's Catholic school in Papiri, Niger State. The federal government denied it, calling the claims "fiction" and "laughable." But a distraction is not a denial. By stripping Ribadu of domestic security oversight, Tinubu is admitting that the man he once called "honest, bold, courageous" has become a national liability. The real failure, however, belongs to the President himself—but as always, the pawn gets the axe while the king remains untouchable.
Two: Ribadu cannot achieve the goal he was appointed to achieve. How can an NSA function when he no longer controls internal security coordination, intelligence fusion on domestic threats, or hostage negotiation protocols? The new Homeland Security Adviser, retired Major General Adeyinka Famadewa—a Yoruba kinsman of Tinubu with over three decades of military and intelligence service—now oversees exactly the portfolio where Ribadu allegedly failed. Tinubu himself was in France on a three-nation diplomatic tour when the announcement was made on May 11, 2026. Perfect timing for a quiet coup.
Let us demolish the argument that Ribadu was not demoted. Who believes this? The NSA historically coordinates ALL security matters—internal and external. Now, the internal component has been carved out and handed to a Tinubu loyalist. Famadewa previously served as Principal General Staff Officer to the NSA from 2015 to 2021, where he spearheaded the Intelligence Fusion Centre at ONSA—meaning he knows exactly where the levers of power are and how to pull them. This is not a promotion for Ribadu; it is a bureaucratic lobotomy cleverly disguised as a reorganization.
A security expert quoted by Daily Trust on May 12, 2026, put it plainly: "There are overlapping functions. In the United States, the two are separated—the NSA being an advisor, and the Homeland Security Secretary being our equivalent of a minister. But for Ribadu and this man to be both advisers, something is really wrong somewhere. Ribadu may not be enjoying Tinubu's trust and confidence anymore." The same source added chillingly: "This was how Tinubu gradually frustrated Wale Edun, until his exit. First, all of Edun's important and sensitive duties were given to a minister of state. Edun felt more and more humiliated the longer he stayed. He was later sacked. Ribadu may hang on to give the impression that all is well. But the real power may have departed elsewhere."
Before his fall, Ribadu had been the most powerful Northerner in Tinubu's government. But rather than using that immense power to fight insecurity, he used it allegedly to fight fellow Northerners he saw as a challenge to his political ambition. El-Rufai, no stranger to controversy, has repeatedly accused Ribadu of using the security apparatus to sideline political rivals. In September 2025, El-Rufai alleged that Ribadu's ONSA had "mismanaged terrorism and banditry in the North," accusing it of coordinating ransom payments to bandits and politicizing security. El-Rufai also claimed that Ribadu had confessed to him that he wants to be president of Nigeria in 2031—and that he has "to eliminate every northerner he thinks is on the radar" to clear the path.
Now look at where Ribadu is: dumped, but subtly, quietly, silently. He still has the title. He still attends Council of State meetings. He still travels to Washington to meet with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, smiling for the cameras. But the operational power—the real power to shape Nigeria's internal security response—has been transferred to a man who reports directly to Tinubu, bypassing the NSA entirely. Ribadu has become a glorified errand boy for international diplomacy, a role he never signed up for and one that renders him politically irrelevant in the domestic arena where his political ambitions lay.
Is this not precisely what happened to Vice President Kashim Shettima? Northern elder and former presidential adviser Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed confirmed on January 27, 2026, what everyone already knew: Shettima has been "marginalised, made virtually redundant" by President Tinubu. The VP, once the most powerful Northerner in the Villa, now appears in public mainly for photo opportunities. The script is identical: keep the Northern figurehead visible enough to satisfy regional balancing, but strip him of every meaningful lever of influence. Ribadu is now following Shettima down the same well-trodden path to irrelevance.
Tinubu's pattern of using and discarding allies is well documented and mercilessly efficient. Akinwunmi Ambode was Tinubu's anointed Lagos governor, until he wasn't—dumped ruthlessly in 2019 for Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Rauf Aregbesola served Tinubu for 30 years, from NADECO trenches to the Interior Ministry, only to be sidelined the moment he outlived his usefulness. Betta Edu was the youthful face of humanitarian compassion, suspended and discarded when her scandal became inconvenient. Even El-Rufai, once Tinubu's ally, now finds himself tormented by EFCC probes and blocked from his ministerial dream. Those who help entrench a dictatorship are always its first victims. Ribadu helped Tinubu centralize power—and now that power has consumed him.
The SBM Intelligence report paints a devastating picture of insecurity under Ribadu's watch. Between July 2024 and June 2025, at least 4,722 Nigerians were abducted in 997 kidnapping incidents, with kidnappers pocketing verified ransom payments of N2.57 billion —a thriving "abduction industry" that has entrenched itself as a structured criminal economy. Over 60% of these incidents occurred in the Northwest, with Zamfara State alone recording 1,203 abductions in a single year. This is the domestic security catastrophe that Ribadu presided over. And now, the very man who failed to stop it is being quietly reassigned to foreign affairs.
To be clear: Ribadu saw this coming. His political ambitions were always his undoing. El-Rufai warned that Ribadu's 2031 presidential dream was driving him to crush every Northern rival—Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, El-Rufai himself, and any other potential challenger. But in politics, ambition without a power base is suicide. Ribadu had no political party, no governors, no legislative block. His only weapon was the security apparatus Tinubu lent him. And now that apparatus has been reposessed, leaving him naked, irrelevant, and utterly disposable.
The most delicious irony is this: the AFP "French dagger" that I wrote about in February—the exposé that came just hours before a US Treasury official touched down in Abuja—was not just a leak. It was Tinubu's opening salvo. By allowing a French news agency to break the story, Tinubu achieved two objectives: he irritated the incoming Trump administration just enough to demonstrate his own indispensability, and he created a ready-made excuse to sideline Ribadu when convenient. The French connection was always about leverage—Tinubu's eight trips to France by mid-2025, his Macron mania, the Africa-France Summit he just attended—all of it was cover for the quiet demolition of his own NSA.
Nigerians, watch closely. In the coming weeks, Ribadu will be progressively excluded from key security meetings on banditry, herder-farmer crises, and urban protests. That is the final stage of the dumping. He will attend some meetings, smile for some cameras, and slowly fade into irrelevance as Famadewa consolidates control over internal security. And when the next kidnapping crisis erupts—as it inevitably will—Ribadu will no longer be in a position to either succeed or fail. That, in the end, is Tinubu's true mastery: not the destruction of enemies, but the surgical neutering of allies.
The title remains. The power is gone. Congratulations, Ribadu—you are now officially dumped. We predicted this. We warned you. You did not listen.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
Abuja Network News
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