AfDB Screens Adesina, Seven Others as Election Holds Today...

Ahead of the African Development Bank (AfDB) presidential election which holds today, the eight candidates in the race met with the Board of Governors yesterday at the ongoing bank’s 50thAnnual Meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The eight candidates who met individually with the board of governors were Akinwunmi Adesina, Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Sufian Ahmed, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ethiopia; Jaloul Ayed, Minister of Fnance, 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.

Sources told THISDAY that each candidate took turn to defend his vision statement before the board of governors.

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.

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 AfDB, 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 ongoing bank’s annual meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Adesina, Nigeria’s candidate, is hopeful of clinching the presidency as THISDAY learnt the country had garnered significant support from some francophone and English-speaking regional member countries of the bank, as well as non-regional members, which are reputed to be very influential in determining who wins the race.

According to the voting powers, all the 54 regional member countries have a combined 3,844,574 votes with voting powers of 59.722, while 26 non-regional members, including the United Kingdom and United State have 2,592,862 votes and voting powers of 40.278.Specifically, Nigeria has the highest 595,838 votes with voting powers of 9.256 per cent.

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 region. 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.