The Federal Government of Nigeria has thrown its weight behind the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr Akinwumi Adesina, following calls by the United States of America for an independent investigation against him.
Adesina was cleared of allegations of embezzlement, preferential treatment of Nigerians in senior appointments and promoting people accused or found guilty of fraud and corruption by an ethics committee of the bank, however, the US Treasury Department dismissed it and also wrote a letter urging the AfDB to carry out an independent investigation into the alleged ethics breaches by the bank’s President.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed reacting to this, appealed to the chairman of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) to dismiss the call for an independent investigation of Adesina.
The letter reads in part “The call for an ‘independent investigation’ of the President is outside of the laid down rules, procedures and governing system of the bank and its articles as it relates to the Code of Conduct on Ethics for the President. As Board of Governors (made up of the finance ministers of member countries), we must uphold the rule of law and respect the governance systems of the bank. If there’s any governance issues that need improvement, these can be considered and amendments proposed for adoption in line with laid down procedures. The Nigerian Government welcomes the conclusion of the Ethics Committee and the decision of the Chair of the Board of Governors. The Ethics Committee, following three months of work to examine the whistleblowers’ allegations made against the President, dismissed each and every one of the allegations of the whistleblowers against the President as unsubstantiated and baseless”