Along with his brother Wasane, historian Bahru Zewde groups Nasibu "among the most colourful of the first-generation intellectuals" of Twentieth-century Ethiopia.
His maternal grandfather, Azaz Emmanual Wolde Malakot, whose name both brothers came to adopt, was a notable courtier of Emperor.
Bahru agrees with Eshetu Assen that Nasibu was a reforming mayor, pointing out his reforms included "the registration and categorization of urban land, the institution of traffic police and sanitation guards, a ban on the custom of firing shots during festivities, the proscription of the capricious system of leba shay, the burying of the bodies of dead animals, road-building, granting loans to people building houses along the main roads so that the construction would add to the beauty of the city, the institution of night guards to curb mugging and the municipal certification of contracts."
After visiting Berlin in 1929, Nasibu made investigations into introducing a modern water supply system to Addis Ababa.
[2] Being in command of the municipal police, which he organized along modern lines, Nasibu played a key role in the political power struggle of 1928, supporting Ras[nb 1] Tafari (the later Emperor Haile Selassie) against first Dejazmach[nb 2] Balcha Safo then against Dejazmach Abba Weqaw.