Former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu will, tomorrow, deliver the Nnamdi Azikiwe University convocation lecture at the institution’s 11th convocation ceremony.

The lecture, titled Leadership and the challenges of national unity in Nigeria holds at the university auditorium by 1:00pm.

Ribadu was the pioneer EFCC chairman, the government organ tasked with countering corruption, fraud and economic crimes.

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He was appointed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003 and re-appointed in 2007.

In October 2006, Nuhu Ribadu told the BBC that over $380 billion had been stolen or wasted by Nigerian governments since independence in 1960. During Ribadu’s time, the EFCC charged prominent bankers, former as well as serving state governors, ministers, a sitting Senate President, high-ranking political party members, commissioners of Police, and advance fee fraud (“419”) gang operators to court. The Commission issued thousands of indictments and achieved about 270 convictions. One notable case was that of his boss, the then Inspector-General of Force, Tafa Balogun, who was convicted, jailed and made to return £150 million in a plea bargain arrangement.

Ribadu’s achievements in the EFCC included de-listing of Nigeria from the FATF List of Non Cooperative Countries & Territories, admission into the prestigious Egmont Group and withdrawal of the US Treasury FINCEN Advisory on Nigeria. They helped make the EFCC the foremost anti-Corruption enforcement agency on the continent, cementing Ribadu’s global reputation as a respected anti-corruption crusader.