President Not Asked To Step Down– Board
The Federal Government has expressed support for re-election bid of Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, as President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), decrying ongoing attempts to investigate him for perceived offences outside of the bank’s rule book.
In a two-page letter addressed to Mrs. Kaba Niale, chairman of the AfDB’s board of governors on Thursday, May 28, 2020, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, urged that the bank’s “laid down process be followed to protect and preserve our bank.”
The Nigerian minister recalled also that AfDB’s Ethics Committee conducted and completed its work followed laid down rules and procedures by the resolution of the board of governors, and thereafter “called on the whistleblowers to submit any additional evidence, facts and documents to buttress their allegations, but they did not.”
She noted that the board had concurred with the conclusion reached by the Ethics Committee in dismissing all allegations against Akinwunmi.
The call for an “independent investigation” of the same matter “is outside of the laid down rules, procedures and governing system of the bank and its Articles as it relates to the Code of Conduct on Ethics for the President.”
The board of governors, she argued, “must therefore uphold the rule of law and respet the governance systems of the bank,” and that should there be any governance issues in need of improvement, it can be considered and amendments proposed for adoption in line with laid down procedures.
Adesina who is sole candidate, she stressed, is deserving of re-election which should have been done on Thursday May 28, 2020, an event now postponed to August 25-27.
For the benefit of doubt, Mrs. Ahmed said Adesina “has delivered impactful programmes and impressive results at the bank,” including securing General Capital Increase of $115bn, the largest ever n the history of the bank.
She recalled the recent $10bn Crisis Response Facility for Africa by the bank to fight the ravaging coronavirus pandemic; in addition to the launch of a $3bn “Fight COVID19” social bond, the largest US Dollar denominated social bond ever in world history.
She seemingly wonders why the fuse, given that the African Union has endorsed Akinwunmi’s candidacy for re-election, following a similar endorsement by the regional body- ECOWAS Heads of States and Governments.
No Crisis In AfDB- Board of Governors
Meanwhile, the bank’s Bureau of the Boards of Governors, in a statement also on Thursday emphasized that “there is no governance or constitutional crisis at the African Development Bank Group.
“It is indeed false that the President of the Bank Group has been or is being asked to step down from his position,” according to a statement personally signed by Mrs. Niale.
She said the board at its meeting of Tuesday, May 26, considered “the matter arising from a whistleblowers’ complaint against the President of the Bank, which was dealt with by the Ethics Committee of Board of Directors of the Bank and for which I received
She reassured the public that the bureau is treating the matter “with the utmost seriousness that it deserves,” and that no decision has been taken “as falsely conveyed in some publications.”
Everyone, she stressed, “must allow the Bureau to do its work and allow due process to reign. All the Governors will be carried along in resolving the issue.”
