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First, it is very painful for me to write this. African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Akinwumi Adesina, is my person and I am one of his biggest fans for his efforts on African agriculture. I gave a speech in Nigeria’s National Assembly last year on agro-reform; my work that day was easy because of Dr Adesina. ( I was invited for our work on Zenvus.) Yes, if you are looking at a playbook for agriculture in Nigeria, go, copy, adapt and implement what AfDB has for member countries.

There were some accusations against Dr Adesina by some AfDB stakeholders. The Ethics Committee of the Bank’s Board was put into action; he was exonerated by the Committee.

The big news now is that the United States Government through the Secretary of Treasury, Steven T. Mnuchin, has rejected the conclusion, and is asking for an independent investigation. That changes the dimension of this whole thing. The letter is attached here (pdf). Dr. Adesina was largely walking into the second term of the AfDB presidency before this investigation began.

Premium Times has some of the allegations.

ALLEGED BREACHES OF CODE OF CONDUCT

The original complaint seen by PREMIUM TIMES include 16 cases of alleged breaches perpetrated by Mr Adesina and an additional four cases of breaches later sent to the Board of Governors.

The allegations range for alleged misconduct and favoritism, arbitrary recruitment, private gain, impediment to efficiency, singlehandedly overruling decisions taken by directors, nepotism, political lobbying, use of bank resources for private gains.

[…]

The whistleblowers claimed that almost immediately after Mr Adesina’s assumption of office, he usurped the role HR manager, “playing very active role in the recruitment of all managerial positions”.

[..]

The whistleblowers also alleged that under Mr Adesina’s presidency, the bank’s organisation chart was altered to promote Nigeria to an almost full-fledged region.

[…]

The whistleblowers described Adesina as “the unchallenged travel champion” of the bank and accused him of using the opportunities of his travels to meet regional heads of States and making financial promises to obtain their support for his re-election.