Muhammadu Ribadu

Who was Muhammadu Ribadu?

Muhammadu Ribadu was a Nigerian politician and former minister for Defense. The son of a district head from Adamawa's Balala district, he was educated early on at a Koranic school before proceeding to the middle school at Yola. While in Yola, he received private tutorship under a colonial officer. Afterwards, he became a teacher at the Yola middle school. After a few years teaching in Yola, he got and proceeded abroad, on a scholarship to study local government. Like a few of his colleagues who took the scholarship, he returned, and thereafter became interested in the nation's political process, he was appointed to the Northern House of Assembly in 1947 and re-elected in 1951. In 1952, he was made minister for Lands as part of an indigenous council of ministers. In 1954, he was elected the second Vice-President of NPC and became literary, the third northern leader behind Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa.