Akinwumi Adesina remains at top spot after being re-elected as AfDB President

African Development Bank president, AfDB, Akinwumi Adesina, has been re-elected to serve another 5-year term as the head of the Bank.

Ahead of the virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM), Adesina announced his decision to run for another term.

In the end, he returned unopposed for a second term as AfDB president. He said he was “doing it with an acute sense of duty and commitment. I do it to serve Africa and our bank, in an unbiased way, to the best of the abilities that God has given me.”

Adesina’s Corruption allegations

Adesina was cleared of controversial corruption charges after facing questions from a panel on the affairs of AfDB.

An independent panel of experts, headed by former Irish president Mary Robinson, has cleared the beleaguered leader of the African Development Bank (AfDB) of all corruption, according to a report obtained by AFP.

Akinwumi Adesina becomes the first Nigerian to wheel the AfDB in 2015. However, a 15-page report earlier this year claimed that under his watch the bank had been tarred by poor governance, impunity, personal enrichment and favouritism.

During his trial, the panel of three experts, led by Robinson alongside Gambia’s Chief Justice Hassan Jallow and the World Bank’s integrity vice president Leonard McCarthy, cleared Adesina of all charges alleged by whistleblowers.

“The Panel concurs with the Committee in its findings in respect of all the allegations against the President and finds that they were properly considered and dismissed by the Committee,” the report concluded.

Adesina who is the sole candidate for the bank’s August’s presidential elections had allegations levelled against him after the whistleblowers’ complaints were leaked to the media in April 2020.

In all this, the former Nigerian finance minister had always maintained that he was “innocent” of the charges.

At the verdict hearing, Robinson, who led Ireland from 1990 to 1997 before serving as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights until 2002 arrived at dismissing the 16 whistleblower allegations against Adesina. The panel did not investigate the charges themselves as that was not within their mandate.

The AfDB plays an important role, often a behind-the-scenes role, in African economies by financing projects in agriculture, health, energy, education, transport and other development-oriented sectors.