Ribadu dumps ACN.

Buhari, Ribadu and Tinubu.

Disappointed by the conduct of his party’s hierarchy during the just-concluded presidential poll, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), has concluded plans to dump the party.


National Mirror reliably learnt that Ribadu, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), felt used and disappointed by the attitude of some ACN leaders who traded him off in the build-up to the presidential election. But his departure from the party might not be an“He has no option than to leave the party. It wasn’t mere tales that he was sold out by the party leadership a few days to the election. We have reliable information on how a certain leader of the party met serving governors elected on the platform of the ACN and directed them to mobilise support for another party’s presidential candidate.

“This is a sad development for a party which claims to be a progressive. So, there is no need hob-nobbing with people who care less about your future. Ultimately, he is leaving ACN, but the destination cannot be disclosed yet,” a top member of the Ribadu Campaign Organisation told our correspondent yesterday. The source added that Ribadu’s stay in the ACN had been full of pains. According to the source, “He had wanted to leave the party just before the election because they were making things difficult for him. The party disagreed with him on virtually all issues. Look at the choice of running mate, how it dragged so long. So, ACN has not been fair to him. The only thing they did not do to him was that they didn’t physically hurt him.

That is bad. “It was clear that without an alliance, ACN could not win the presidential election, so he made up his mind to withdraw from the race so that the alliance could work. He was prepared to make the sacrifice. But they frustrated every move until they sold out.” Another source told our reporter that many of the ACN leaders had not spoken to Ribadu after his dismal showing at the presidential election on April 16. A member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party confirmed this to National Mirror, but attributed this to an ‘oversight.’ Ribadu came a distant third with 2,079,151 votes, representing 5.41% of the votes cast in the presidential election, losing all the states controlled by the ACN, except Osun, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan.

Former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was alleged to have brokered a deal with the PDP which affected the chances of Ribadu in the election and gave him away. “The reason why he won Osun was because Governor Rauf Aregbesola did not go with them when they negotiated to trade off. He knew Tinubu very well. Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole, for example, didn’t like Ribadu right from the word go. So, it was expected that he would not give any consideration to Ribadu,” a member of the Ribadu Campaign Organisation said. Another confidant of Ribadu confirmed to National Mirror that the retired Assistant Inspector- General of Police (AIG) had reviewed his political journey in the ACN and had come to a conclusion to part ways with the party.

“Ideologically, Ribadu and some of the ACN leaders are not on the same page. But political exigency brought them together. This young man has no intention of running for public office until he was persuaded to do so by some ACN stalwarts. But at the end of the day, the political merchant traded him off. “He was used primarily to launder the image of some party godfathers,” he said. National Mirror also learnt that a group of northern politicians were already wooing Ribadu to defect to the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and possibly contest on the party’s platform in 2015.

Already, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the CPC presidential candidate, had said he would not contest the 2015 presidency, saying 2011 election was his last. The northern group are narrowing their choice for 2015 presidency to Ribadu, Governor Ibrahim Shekarau and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, a former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister. Ribadu is said to be an in-law to Buhari. On the option left for him, one of coordinators said: “We are looking at different options. We are going to meet to do a post-mortem on the presidential election looking at where we went wrong and what is next.

“Sincerely, ACN is not an option. Some of us cannot go through that route again. So, a lot of political parties will come together. That does not mean that Ribadu will be the rallying point. Already, ACN has followed the PDP. “At the end of the day, there will be new name for the parties coming together where it won’t be a sectional party. CPC will be part of the alliance. Buhari is not contesting again. He will just be a father figure.” When contacted on the development, the National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, said he was unaware of such move by Ribadu.

“I don’t think that will happen,” he said. Muhammed said nobody betrayed Ribadu in the presidential election but that the poll was fought on religious and ethnic grounds. But when asked if he has spoken to Ribadu since Saturday, Muhammed said he had not. To further underscore the frosty relationship between Ribadu and the ACN, neither him nor any of the party leaders has commented on how he lost woefully at the presidential elections. In the meantime, Ribadu is on his way out of the country. A source told National Mirror that the Adamawa-born politician would travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah this weekend, from where he would proceed on a long vacation in the United States.