In Backing Adesina, Buhari Sends Atiku to Zuma
Eight in contest for AfDB presidency
Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwumi Adesina, is among the eight candidates vying for the office of President of the African Development Bank (AfDB). The other contenders are Sufian Ahmed, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ethiopia; Jaloul Ayed, Minister of Finance, Tunisia; Kordje Bedoumra, Minister of Finance and Budget, Chad; Cristina Duarte, Minister of Finance and Planning, Cabo Verde; Samura M.W. Kamara, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Sierra Leone; Thomas Zondo Sakala (Zimbabwe), former Vice President, Country and Regional Programmes, AfDB; and Birama Boubacar Sidibe (Mali), Vice President, Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The successful candidate will replace Dr. Donald Kaberuka, a national of Rwanda, who has been in the saddle since September 1, 2005, following his election in July 2005. He has served two terms of five years each.
As the battle rages, President-elect Muhammadu Buhari sent former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to South Africa over the weekend to commence lobby for the candidacy of Adesina.
Although the process that will lead to the emergence of the new president started since July 1, 2014, according to the Rules of Procedure Governing the Election of the President of the African Development Bank, the election will hold during the Annual Meeting closest to the end of the term of office of the serving President. It implies that the AfDB Board of Governors will be electing Kaberuka’s successor on May 28, 2015, during the bank’s annual meeting, which will hold between May 25 -29, 2015 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Adesina, 55, comes to the race with a wealth of experience and outstanding performance. Until his appointment in 2010, he was the Vice President of Policy and Partnerships for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Prior to that, he had worked at the Rockefeller Foundation since winning a fellowship from the Foundation as a senior scientist in 1988. From 1999 to 2003 he was the representative of the Foundation for the southern African area. From 2003 until 2008 to the present he was an associate director for food security.
Adesina is credited with notable reforms in the agriculture sector that have attracted unprecedented level of investment into the sector. According to official figures, within the last three years, food import has dropped significantly from N1 trillion to N466 billion.
As part of the reforms in the sectors, transparency in the administration and distribution of fertilisers has abated corruption and corrupt tendencies in the processes, hitherto a cesspit of graft.
In July 2007, Adesina was awarded the YARA Prize for the African Green Revolution in Oslo.
Besides, the minister was named Forbes African of the Year in 2013 for his reforms in the agriculture sector. In bestowing on him the honour, Editor, Forbes Africa, Chris Bishop, had said: “He is a man on a mission to help Africa feed itself.”
Adesina is a holder of PhD in Agricultural Economics (1988) from the Purdue University, USA, where he had previously obtained a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics in 1985. Prior to these feats, he bagged Bachelor’s degree (First Class Honors) in Agricultural Economics from University of Ife, Nigeria in 1981.
This is the third time Nigeria is taking a shot at the AfDB Presidency. In 1995, the then Director-General of OPEC Fund, Dr. Saheed Abdullahi, represented Nigeria in a contest that saw Mr. Omar Kabbaj emerged as the President . Ten years after (in 2005), the battle was brought to Nigeria when she hosted the 40th Annual Meetings of the bank and the nation’s candidate, Mr. Bisi Ogunjobi, the then bank’s Vice President, Operations, West and Central Operations, lost to Kaberuka, Rwandan, who was sponsored by the non-regional member countries (NRMCs) that include the United States, China, United Kingdom, Japan and France.
Nigeria plays a significant role in AfDB. A leading shareholder among the RMCs, Nigeria took a bold step in 1976 to set up the Nigeria Trust Fund(NTF), which together with the ADF make up the AfDB Group. The fund was set up in agreement with the bank to assist in the development of regional member countries (RMCs), whose economic and social conditions and prospects require financing on concessional terms. The fund which became operational in April 1976, had an initial capital of $80million.
NTF lends at no interest charge but with a service charge of 0.75 percent per annum on outstanding balances and commitment fee of 0.5 percent per annum on un-disbursed commitments with a repayment period of 27years including a grace period of up to seven years. It was replenished in 1981 with $71million. By the end of 2004, the total resources of NTF had risen to $540.26million. In 2008, Nigeria and the bank agreed to a 10-year extension of the NTF.