The vice president of Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PACCI), Adetokunbo Kayode, has affirmed that the US Treasury Department is mistaken about its call for a fresh probe of Akinwumi Adesina, president of African Development Bank.
The chamber leader called for engagement with Washington on the issue.
In a virtual chat on African post-pandemic recovery, Kayode said the Treasury Department must consider programmes of the US State Department to see how helpful to Africa and Washington Adesina has been by his innovative support and stabilisation of Africa through the AFDB.
“It is very sad that one of Africa’s best is being dragged around over what I will call a non-issue. The man was not accused of embezzling or diverting bank’s money. If anything, he increased the bank’s capitalisation and ensured investment in real sector to take the continent out of under-development,” the chamber leader said.
“I read through the charges, his defence and the report of the Ethics Committee. I immediately concluded that somebody is misinforming Washington on the true state of things at the bank. Sincerely, I believe the American Treasury Secretary was misled to seek fresh probe of Adesina. We actually need to engage the Treasury Department on this matter,” he said.
This is coming only days after President Muhammadu Buhari pledged Nigeria’s support for Adesina’s re-election, and over a week after former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed also threw the weight of their support behind Adesina.
Adesina, 60, a former minister of agriculture and rural development in Nigeria, was first elected as AfDB president on May 28, 2015.
But his re-election bid is now being challenged by whistle-blowing allegations of inappropriate conducts.
The bank’s Ethics Committee, after looking into the matter, cleared Adesina of all the allegations brought against him, but US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin openly rejected the decision, calling for a fresh “independent” probe of Adesina, a move that analysts say risks eroding the independence of the bank’s corporate governance structure and raising doubt about the bank’s internal integrity mechanisms.
Kayode insisted that the US was being misled to attack its own, an American-trained scholar who has protected American interest so far by stabilising Africa in developmental funding.
“If not for AfDB and Adesina, China would have fully taken over Africa in the area of infrastructure financing. AfDB provides the developmental funding, giving Africa alternatives,” he said.
Wondering why the United States is not looking at the bigger picture, the chamber chief questioned why America and other western shareholders are against a president who has protected the integrity of African developmental landscape.
“We actually need to engage with the White House and the Treasury Department,” he said.
On ongoing engagement over the matter, Kayode said a lot was being done.
“Several African leaders with foot in Washington have intervened. I read a letter by friends of President Trump in Nigeria, urging him to step into the matter. That is also good. From the private sector chamber movement, we are also wading into the matter, calling on the US Chamber of Commerce to intervene. We are sending correspondence soon. It is in the interest of Africa and the Western world for Adesina to remain as president,” he stressed.
