He ran for governor of Adamawa State in 2015 as a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party; before joining the All Progressives Congress to run in 2019 and lost his bid in 2023 to Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed.

His father, Ahmadu Ribadu, was a First Republic Member of Parliament, and Ambassador to Niger, during the military regime of Muhammadu Buhari.

On 20 October 2006, Nuhu Ribadu told the BBC that over 380 billion dollars had been stolen or wasted by Nigerian governments since independence in 1960.

[9] Under Ribadu's administration, the EFCC charged prominent bankers, former state governors, ministers, Senators, high-ranking political party members, even the head of the Nigerian police.

One notable case was that of his boss, the then Inspector General of the Nigerian Police Force, Tafa Balogun, who was convicted, jailed and made to return £150 million under a plea bargain.

"[17] In December 2007, Mike Okiro, Inspector-General of Police, stated that Ribadu would be removed as EFCC chairman and sent on a one-year training course.

[18] The decision was criticised by, among others, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, House of Representatives members, and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) national chairman Edwin Ume-Ezeoke as politically motivated and/or likely to set back the fight against corruption.

[21] Shortly after Jonathan won the election, Ribadu joined a six-man UN monitoring team tasked with auditing Afghanistan’s governance, the third most corrupt country in the world.