President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigeria will stand solidly behind Dr Akinwumi Adesina in his bid to get re-elected as President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
The President spoke at State House, Abuja, Tuesday, while hosting Adesina on a courtesy visit.
In a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media, Mr. Femi Adesina, President Buhari said, “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.”
The statement said the President pledged that Nigeria would work with all other leaders and stakeholders in AfDB to ensure that Dr Adesina was elected for a second term built on the record of his achievements during his first term.
The statement noted that African Union had already endorsed the incumbent AfDB President as sole candidate for the continent, but some other stakeholders were trying to ensure that Dr Adesina was re-investigated on some allegations, and rendered ineligible to run.
Giving a background to what was happening in the bank, the statement stated, 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.”
It said Adesina added that the Ethics Committee of the bank cleared him of all the allegations, and calls for fresh investigation by the United States of America, were against the rules.
“My defence 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 was quoted as saying
Stressing that the motive was to soil his name, and that of the bank, the statement stated that 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” the statement quoted him as saying.
It also said Adesina commiserated with President Buhari on the death of the former Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, and described his successor, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, as “a man of integrity, and of global standing.”
