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| Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo |
Your
Excellencies,
I hope
that you are keeping well in the midst of the current COVID 19 pandemic that we
are all going through in Africa and all over the world. I am writing to you in
respect of developments at the African
Development Bank.
As you
may be aware the President of the Bank, Dr.
Akinwumi Adesina, has performed very well in this position over the past
five years. He has taken the Bank to great heights. In 2020, he led the Bank to
achieve a historic general capital increase, raising the capital of the Bank
from $93 billion to $208 billion, an increase of $155 billion, the highest in
the history of the Bank since its establishment in 1964.
I have
been made to understand that the Bank also successfully raised funds from donor
countries of over $7 billion for the African Development Fund 15th
replenishment for low-income countries, an increase of 35%. Under his
leadership the Bank launched the Africa
Investment Forum (AIF) to mobilize massive flows of capital to Africa. The
inaugural launch of the AIF held in Johannesburg, South Africa, secured 38.7
Billion of investment interests within less than 72 hours.
The
AIF event held in 2019 went even further and secured $40.1 Billion of
investment interest in less than 72 hours. Africa has never seen these kinds of
financial and investment interests.The Bank has been effectively positioned as
an effective global institution, ranked 4th globally in terms of transparency
among 45 multilateral and bilateral institutions by Publish What You Fund, an
outfit that consists of 19 developed economies.
Dr.
Adesina led the Bank to successfully launch at the G7 Summit in Biarritz,
France, the Affirmative Finance Action
for Women (AFAWA) to mobilize $3 Billion for women businesses and
entrepreneurs in Africa, with strong support and resources from G7 leaders and
nations. The Bank has also substantially aligned its financing and operations
to help accelerate Agenda 2063 and the High 5 agenda of the Bank (Light Up and
Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialize Africa; Integrate Africa; and Improve
the Quality of Life of the People of Africa) are achieving good results.
Over
the past four years, it is estimated that18 million people were provided with
access to electricity, through “Light Up and Power Africa”: 141 million people
gained access to improved agricultural technologies for food security, through
“Feed Africa”; 13 million people benefited from access to finance from private
sector investment projects, through “Industrialize Africa”; 101 million people
benefitted from access to better transport through “integrate Africa”; 60
million people benefit from improved access to water and sanitation under “Improved
quality of life for the people of Africa. In summary: in less than five years
under Dr. Adesina’s leadership, the Bank’s investments have benefitted and
impacted a total of 333 million Africans.
You
will agree with me that these achievements are commendable and the Bank has
been placed in a strategic position to fast track Africa’s development.
Finally, under Dr. Adesina’s leadership of the Bank, it has continued to
maintain its Triple A (AAA) rating by all global rating agencies over the past
five years. As Africa faces COVID-19, Dr. Adesina again took bold measures to
ensure the Bank can respond proactively to support African countries and got
its Board of Directors to approve a $10 Billion crisis response facility to
support African countries.
In addition,
the Bank successfully launched a $3 billion “Fight COVID-19” social impact bond
on the international capital market, secured at 0.75% interest rate. The social
bond is the largest US dollar denominated bond ever in world history. The bond
is now listed on the London Stock Exchange where it has been oversubscribed at
$4.6 billion. Given these great achievements, Dr. Adesina was unanimously
endorsed for re-election for a second term as President of the Bank by all
Heads of State and Governments of the ECOWAS region. At the Africa Union Summit
in February of 2020, all 55 African countries endorsed him for reelection for
his second term, as the sole candidate as President of the African Development
Bank.
Despite
these achievements and impressive leadership for the Bank and passion for
Africa’s faster-paced development, and his clear endorsement by all of African
countries for re-election for his second term, there are some attempts, led by
some non-regional member countries of the Bank to frustrate his re-eleetion. At
issue are some allegations made by some whistleblowers that alleged that Dr.
Adesina violated Code of Ethics as President. Dr. Adesina strongly denied the
allegations as fabrications and misinformation to disparage and discredit him.
The laid
down due process at the Bank, the Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors,
Chaired by the Executive Director from Japan, and with members who represent
shareholder member countries evaluated the allegations over a period of 3
months. The Ethic Committee of the Board of Directors, after examination of
each of the 16 allegations of the whistleblowers had dismissed each and all of
the allegations as baseless and without any substantiation.
The
Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Bank following review of the Ethics
Committee report exonerating Dr. Adesina concurred with the conclusions and
exonerated Dr. Adesina of all the allegations. The Ethics Committee and the
Chairman of the Board of Governors had performed their duties as laid down in
the Rules and regulations of the Bank.
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.
If we
do not rise up and defend the African Development Bank, this might mean the end
of the African Development Bank, as its governance will be hijacked away from
Africa. I, therefore, propose that we all collectively issue a press statement
to support the laid down procedures embarked upon to evaluate the allegations
against the President of the Bank and to recommend that the Board of Governors,
as well as the Ethics Committee of the Bank, should firmly stand by their
process and its outcome.
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 ADB to remain an Africa-focused development Bank
rather than one which serves interests outside Africa. I have taken the liberty
to offer a draft of the proposed joint statement for your kind review, input
and/or endorsement. My aide, Atom Lim, will share the draft statement and
collate your respective responses for me.
Please
accept, Your Excellencies, the assurances of my highest esteem and
consideration.
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