Nigeria calls on Africa to rescue AfDB from foreign hijackers, as Bureau of Board of Governors calls for restrain from vested interest

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, have urged the board of the African Development Bank (AfDB) to ignore calls for an independent investigation of Akinwumi Adesina by the US. But The Bureau of the Boards of Governors Chairman of the African Development Bank Sala Kaba said the board met on Tuesday, 26 May to consider 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 letters from some shareholders expressing various views. Following the meeting, my attention has been drawn to several publications in the national and international press regarding the content of the deliberations of the said meeting, and I am compelled to make clarifications in order to avoid any misunderstanding. 

The Bureau, which I chair, wishes to reassure the public that it is seized with the matter and that it is treating it with the utmost seriousness that it deserves. Further, the Bureau informs the public that it has not taken any decision as falsely conveyed in some publications. I must emphasise 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. Everyone 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.

Adesina who is President of AfDB, has been accused of favouritism and was absolved of the allegations by the bank’s ethics committee. In separate letters, the duo urged the AfDB board of governors to follow laid down processes to protect and preserve the bank. In his letter, Obasanjo advised that it is “critical” to emphasise the need for the AfDB to remain an “African-focused development bank rather than one which serves interests outside Africa.

Below is Obasanjo’s letter