Independent investigative panel clears Akinwunmi Adesina of any wrongdoing at AfDB

FORMER Nigerian agriculture minister Akinwunmi Adesina has been cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent panel set up to investigate him after the US accused him of corruption in the discharge of his duties as African Development Bank (AfDB) president.

In May this year, the US government has sought to get Mr Adesina, removed, asking the AfDB board to suspend him. In a letter written to the bank's board of directors, the Americans said they were convinced that its ethics committee did not do a proper preliminary investigation on allegations of mismanagement against Mr Adesina in line with standard practices in the other international multilateral financial institutions and the bank’s own rules and procedures.

As a result, the AfDB decided to go for an independent probe after the US treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, openly rejected the decision of the bank’s ethics committee to clear Me Adesina of all the allegations brought against him by some whistleblowers. As a result, the AfDB board of directors asked an independent panel led by former Irish president Mary Robinson, to investigate Mr Adesina.

AfDB is Africa’s largest multilateral development financial institution and the US is the bank's second largest shareholder after Nigeria. However, Nigeria threw its weight behind its former agriculture minister, seeing the US demand as a witch-hunt, with former president  Chief Olusegun Obasanjo writing to 12 former African leaders, asking them to oppose the US plans.

In his letter to 12 former African presidents, Chief Obasanjo said the continent must stand up and not allow its institutions to be unduly controlled by non-African countries. His stance was supported by President Muhammadu Buhari, who has asked the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) to support Mr Adesina.

Yesterday, the independent panel led by Mrs Robinson, said it was satisfied with the findings of a bank probe initiated after an unidentified whistle-blower accused Mr Adesina of handing contracts to acquaintances and appointing relatives to strategic positions. Mrs Robinson was assisted by former Gambian attorney-general Hassan Jallo and ex-South African director of public prosecutions Leonard McCarthy.

Now having been cleared, Mr Adesina is free to seek re-election to run the continent’s biggest multilateral lender for another five years. Mrs Robinson's panel write that it concurs with the findings in respect of all the allegations against Mr Adesina and finds that they were properly considered and dismissed by the committee.

Mr Adesina, 60, had repeatedly denied the allegations and said in a May 27 statement that fair, transparent and just processes would confirm his innocence. The bank’s ethics committee had dismissed much of the complaints in an April 26 report on the basis that the whistleblowers did not provide evidence to back them.