Nigeria Stands By You – Buhari Assures AfDB Boss, Adesina
BY EDMOND ODOK, ABUJA – President Muhammadu Buhari has assured that Nigeria stands solidly behind Dr Akinwumi Adesina in his re-election bid as President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
This is as he pledged that the country will work with all other leaders and stakeholders in AfDB to ensure Dr Adesina is elected for a second term to build on the record of achievements during his first tenure in office.
President Buhari spoke on Tuesday while playing host to Dr Adesina who was on a courtesy visit to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina quoted President Buhari as saying; “In 2015, when you were to be elected for the first term, I wrote to all African leaders, recommending you for the position. I didn’t say because you were a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Minister, and I belonged to the All Progressives Congress (APC), so I would withhold my support. I’ll remain consistent with you, because no one has faulted the step I took on behalf of Nigeria.”
President Buhari’s declaration of Nigeria’s unwavering support for Adesina to return as AfDB President comes on the heels of his endorsement by the African Union as the Continent’s sole candidate for the continent.
However, some other stakeholders, reportedly led by the United States are trying to ensure Dr Adesina is re-investigated on some allegations, and rendered ineligible to run for the office as President.
Giving a background to what was happening in the bank, Dr Adesina, a former Nigerian Minister for Agriculture, said the 16 allegations raised against him were trumped up, “and without facts, evidence, and documents, as required by the rules and regulations of the bank.”
According to him, the Bank’s Ethics Committee had already cleared him of all the allegations, and recent calls for fresh investigations by the United States of America, were against existing rules.
The press statement by the presidential media aide also quoted the AfDB President thus: “My defense ran into 250 pages, and not a single line was faulted or questioned. The law says that report of the Ethics Committee should be transmitted to the Chairman of Governors of the bank. It was done, and the governors upheld the recommendations. That was the end of the matter, according to the rules.”
“It was only if I was culpable that a fresh investigation could be launched. I was exonerated, and any other investigation would amount to bending the rules of the bank, to arrive at a predetermined conclusion,” Dr Adesina said.
Insisting that the motive was to soil his name, and that of the bank, the AfDB President said he was proud to be Nigerian, and thanked President Buhari for his unflinching support.
“You helped me to get elected in the first place, and you have supported me robustly all along, and the African Union unanimously endorsed my re-election”, he said.
Dr Adesina, who commiserated with President Buhari on the death of his former Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, described Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the new Chief of Staff as “a man of integrity, and of global standing.”
