IgbereTV reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to support the President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina of Nigeria in his bid to get re-elected as the bank’s president.
In a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Tuesday, President Buhari who was speaking at State House, Abuja, on Tuesday, while hosting Adesina on a courtesy visit, told the AfDB’s president that “Nigeria will stand solidly behind” him.
“ 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 Peoples Democratic Party Minister, and I belonged to the All Progressives Congress , 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,” Buhari said.
The President promised that Nigeria would work with other leaders and stakeholders in the AfDB to ensure that Adesina was elected for a second term.
Speaking on the allegations against him, Adesina 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” .
He said that the Ethics Committee of the bank cleared him of all the allegations , adding that calls for a fresh investigation by the United States of America were against the rules.
“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, ” Adesina added.
The AfDB President who said that the motive was to soil his name, and that of the bank, said he was proud to be Nigerian, and thanked President Buhari for his unflinching support.
He said, “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”.
