President Buhari makes his support to Akinwumi Adesina, African Development Bank (AfDB) president, evidently public. Ideally, that should do it for the AfDB President on the allegations leveled against him. Yet, it is hard these days to understand what President Trump wants.
President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria will stand solidly behind Akinwumi Adesina in his bid to get re-elected as President of the African Development Bank (AfDB). The president spoke at the State House, Abuja, Tuesday, while hosting Mr Adesina.
“In 2015, when you were to be elected for the first term, I wrote to all African leaders, recommending you for the position. I didn’t say because you were a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Minister, and I belonged to the All Progressives Congress (APC), so I would withhold my support. I’ll remain consistent with you, because no one has faulted the step I took on behalf of Nigeria,” said Mr Buhari.
Many here have written that African Union and AfDB should just ignore the U.S. and carry on. That would be a momentous stupidity because if the U.S. treasury classifies AfDB as a “corrupt institution”, rightly or wrongly, the bank will crash. Banks thrive on the trust score more than the amount of cash in the vault.
Case in point: Venezuela was pumping oil, but was getting poorer because a layer was placed on its banking system. We’re living in a unipolar financial system and the U.S. runs the show. You just need to find a way to be in the good books. Sure, you may wish China. Unfortunately, China buys U.S. debts as though there is a cookie bonanza: as of December 2019, China owns $1.07 trillion of the $23 trillion U.S. national debt.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 14 (June 3 – Sept 2, 2024) begins registrations; get massive discounts with early registration here.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
China has steadily accumulated U.S. Treasury securities over the last few decades. As of December 2019, the Asian nation owns $1.07 trillion, or about 5%, of the $23 trillion U.S. national debt, which is more than any other foreign country
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Jun 3 - Sep 2, 2024), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.
The world is configured in a certain way, and when you are not one of the power brokers, you must find ways to keep appearing as a nice guy, if you want your territory to remain stable.
You cannot simply wish some things away, or shout discrimination, because if you do, then who exactly are hoping to come to your rescue? You may end up looking in the direction of the very people that accused you to also come to your rescue, that is how the world operates. Sovereignty works well only on paper, but when you become a president, you quickly learn that there are nations you must maintain good relationships with, if you don’t want your regime to collapse.
The former presidents have spoken, the present ones are speaking, Africans are speaking; but none of these would be enough for Adesina and AfDB, you still need to find ways to appear good in the eyes of the Americans. If you haven’t succeeded in the latter, you still have some work to do.
Diplomacy is an art, not science, and pointing to what the rulebook says means you are still viewing it as science; you can’t win many points with that in international politics.