AfDB: Nigerians urge Buhari to defend Adesina

Nigeria’s former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Agriculture Akinwumi Adesina,  left the shores of the ministry to serve as the Chief Executive of African Development Bank (AfDB)  for five years.

His chances of getting a second term as president of AfDB are being threatened following allegations of corruption and favouritism levelled against him.

READ: Noose tightens around AfDB President, Adesina

Nigerians on Twitter have however reacted to these allegations saying the federal government should come out in support of Adesina while some say, justice should be served accordingly.

Adeshina’s sterling qualities, leadership roles or administrative acumen as head of AfDB will speak for him. Clear conscience fears no accusation. @akin_adesina ✊ pic.twitter.com/uSfkBXP0at

— Ahmed Abdulrahaman (@ahmed_onimisi48) May 28, 2020

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Stop beating round the bush, did he employ close relatives or friends or school mates yes or no

If Buhari employ same do u people care to know what process was use to employ them before u people start wailling?

— Jossy9th (@GucciJ9) May 28, 2020

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He’s truly a man of Integrity and he’ll come out from this investigation unscathed

— Jeremiah (@oluwafolafunmi) May 28, 2020

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Stop sounding like a baby’s fart. Even if that’s the case, which definitely isn’t, our president’s appointments are 97% Ethno-religious. Check the names on the thread…

— The piano teacher (@_Abrahamokolo) May 28, 2020

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Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland are among countries that wrote @AfDB_Group to back America’s demands for professional outsiders to look into the allegations against @akin_adesina
We should let the process run and hope he comes out cleaner, rather than this omo wa ni solidarity. https://t.co/3pumXdupTs

— Káyọ̀dé Ògúndámisí (@ogundamisi) May 28, 2020

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Adesina’s travails began when a group of anonymous concerned staff of the bank, riding on the whistle-blowing policy, had in an 18-page petition titled ‘Communication relating to alleged breach of the Code of Ethics by the President of the African Development Bank Group,’ addressed to the Board of Governors of the AfDB, accused Adesina of breaching the code of ethics of the development finance institution.

In the petition written in April 2020, the complainants said they had previously filed a complaint on January 19, regarding cases of alleged breach of the said code of ethics by the AfDB president.

READ: AfDB President, Adesina fights back over corruption accusations

The complaint was filed with the ethics committee of the board of directors through the chair of the committee, ED Yano (Japan), the chair of the audit committee, ED Dowd (USA), and the director for the integrity and anti-corruption department, Mr. Bacarese.

They stated: “We feel it has become our duty to alert you directly about the very serious situation that the bank faces, which could in the short term threaten its very existence if no action is taken.

“Our complaint illustrates various cases of alleged breaches of the code of conduct: unethical conduct, private gain, impediment to efficiency, preferential treatment adversely affecting confidence in the integrity of the bank and involvement in political activity,” the petitioners added.

The group further alleged that the ethics committee failed to act within reasonable time hence the need to escalate it to the governors of the bank. “On March 3rd, six weeks after our initial complaint, we came to the conclusion that the ethics committee was unable or unwilling to proceed with their preliminary examination of the complaint and that we should not have trusted it.

“The committee could not give us reassurances of any progress, on the contrary, attempts were made to uncover our identities, which should have been protected under the whistle-blowing policy,” they alleged.

Even though Adesina had reportedly “cleared” the allegations levelled against him and therefore to certain extent improved his chances of getting a second term, the United States’ Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, unequivocally objected the purported “in-house” exoneration of the embattled Adesina by the AfDB board.

Analysts believed this might not be unconnected with the position of the whistle-blowers who insisted for the urgent commission of an independent investigation into the alleged excesses of Adesina.