Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Thursday waded into the crisis of the African Development Bank (AfDB), calling on the board of the bank to ignore calls for an independent investigation of the President of the Bank Akinwumi Adesina by the US treasury secretary.
Obasabjo in a letter, dated Tuesday, May 26, insisted that the call negates the ethics of the Bank and called on former African leaders to collectively issue a press statement in support of the laid down procedures used to evaluate the allegations against Adesina.
Obasanjo said, “If we do not rise up and defend the African Development Bank, this might mean the end of the African Development Bank, its governance will be hijacked away from Africa.
“We should speak against the introduction of alien practices being recommended by some parties given that such recommendation falls outside the laid down procedure, laws, rules and regulations of the Bank. It is also critical that we emphasize the need for the AfDB to remain an Africa-focused development Bank rather than one which serves interests outside Africa”.
“Unfortunately, the US Government, through the US Treasury Secretary, has written a public letter (that was also distributed to the Press globally) to disagree with the conclusions of the Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors and the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Bank. Instead of accepting the exoneration of the President of the Bank, they called for an independent investigation”
“This is outside of the rules, laws, procedures and governance systems of the Bank. The US Treasury Secretary disparaged the Bank and ridiculed the entire governance system of the Bank, which has been in place since 1964. This is unprecedented in the annals of the African Development Bank Group.”
