Dr. Akin Adesina Response to 16 Allegations Against him as President AfDB Group

ALLEGATION 2: Appointment of Mrs Chinelo ANOHU-AMAZU

RESPONSE : Ms. Chinelo Anohu-AMAZU was recruited via a globally advertised, open, competitive recruitment process. The search process was carried out by a top notch external recruitment firm, Russell Reynolds UK. She was 1 of 2 top candidates (both women) recommended to me as President to consider for appointment by the panel I can state categorically that allegations made against her are untrue and defamatory.
__
ALLEGATION 3: Appointment & promotions of Martin FREGENE

RESPONSE: Mr Fregene is NOT my brother-in-law. There is no evidence he is. Second, Mr Fregene is a worldclass geneticist internationally renowned for his work on plant genetics of cassava, and who worked earlier at CIAT, Colombia, one of CGIAR centres, and subsequently as Director at Danforth Plant Science Centre (probably the second largest private agricultural research centres in the US
He returned from diaspora to Nigeria to work as Chief Technical Advisor when I was Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister. He was hired as consultant by the Bank’s VP for Agric, Human & Social Development, Jennifer Blake, to support her in developing the Bank’s Feed Africa strategy
I approved the recommended hire which was entirely within my power to do.
_
ALLEGATION 4: Mismanagement of TAAT programme

RESPONSE: Allegations against me concerning the TAAT are belied by objective and solid facts demonstrating no violation by me of the Code of Conduct.

TAAT is an initiative of the Bank developed to help take agricultural technologies to the scale of millions of farmers across Africa. Although some staff made some mistakes in procurement process, this is being investigated by the Bank and no findings have been made yet.
There is no impropriety. The President does not get involved in contractual issues in the Bank, except in cases involving matters that may affect the image, reputation and interests of the Bank.

__
ALLEGATION 5: Appointments and promotions of Mrs Maria MULINDI

RESPONSE: Ms Maria Mulindi worked with me prior to joining the Bank. She was part of my transition management team as I prepared to take office at the Bank following my election as President, and she very ably led all engagements with the Bank with my transition team.
All Presidents of the Bank are allowed to bring in and appoint their own Chief of Staff and advisers, to help them to implement their mandate.
__

ALLEGATION 6: Direct contracting and appointment of Victor Oladokun.

RESPONSE: We went to the University together and
have been friends since then. There is nothing in the Bank rules that says that being a friend of anyone in the Bank who gets recruited at the Bank is against Bank rules.

ALLEGATIONS 7: Contracting of Kapil KAPOOR

ADESINA: The African Development Bank
under my chairmanship of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) Heads, was tasked to help further develop my proposal to the group on how we can work collectively to leverage global institutional investors to invest in infrastructure and other sectors.
Kapil Kapoor, who was previously Director, Strategy & Policies of the Bank, prior to his appointment as DG for Southern Africa, had been leading this, working closely with all other MDBs.

Kapil was essentially doing this work on top of his regular work as Director General
He retired from the Bank at the end of August 2019.

ALLEGATIONS 8: Appointment of Emmanuel EZINWA

RESPONSE: The allegation that “A Nigerian, Mr EZINWA was found guilty of sexually harassing a colleague during his probation period;
and despite his misconduct, (I) requested that Mr. EZINWA’s contract be confirmed, thus forcing the HR Director, Mrs Frauke HARNISCHFEGER resign is false.

The truth is that I do not know Mr EZINWA and have never met him in the Bank.
The President does not get involved in any staff appraisals except for Vice Presidents and direct reports.

The then HR Director, Mr. David Ssegawa, evaluated the staff and there was nothing about sexual harassment.

Mrs Frauke HARNISCHFEGER was not the HR Director in 2018.
The HR Director in 2018 was Mr David Ssegawa, who evaluated the staff & recommended the staff, as per the standard procedures of the Bank, to the President.

Ms HARNISCHFEGER joined in 2019, one year after a confirmation recommendation made by the predecessor HR Director.

ALLEGATION 9: Preferential treatment for Nigeria &Nigerians

RESPONSE: I did not introduce an organisational chart with a Nigeria Country Directorate. The decision (to open such Directorate) was taken by the BOD under my predecessor, the Bank’s ex President @DonaldKaberuka

ALLEGATION 10: Awards received by the President and costs borne by the Bank

ADESINA: I received the @WorldFoodPrize ($250,000) and the @SunhakPrize ($500,000) in recognition of a life of accomplishments in the field of agriculture. Although they were individual prizes,
they brought great credit & prestige to @AfDB_Group.
I brought further credit to myself & the Bank by donating these 2 cash awards for the establishmnt of the World Hunger Fighters Foundation, a foundatn that has garnered contributions from others & now funds the Borlaug
Adesina Fellows Fellowship for young African Agribusiness Innovators.

The expenses of the @WorldFoodPrize event, including entertainment (musical groups from Nigeria and the Glee Club from Purdue University (my alma mater) were defrayed by the World Food Prize Foundation.

ALLEGATION 11: Settlements for staff separations

RESPONSE: The allegation that somehow the former Chief Economist, Mr Celestine Monga, departed the Bank with improper payments is false. The Chief Economist was not dismissed. Contract non-renewal is not dismissal of staff.

ALLEGATION 12: Resignation of Mr David SSEGAWA

RESPONSE: Mr Ssegawa was the HR Director. It is not true that I, as President, allowed him to resign when there was an investigatn. There was absolutely no investigatn of David Ssegawa when he resigned, nor was one contemplated

ALLEGATION 13: Resignation of Mr Michel-Cyr DJIENA-WEMBOU

RESPONSE: The allegation that I allowed the country manager to resign when he was under investigatn for corruption is false. The President does not run country offices. They are under a DG &overall oversight of a VP

ALLEGATION 14: Appointment of Mr Charles LUFUMPA as acting VP and Chief Economist.

RESPONSE: The allegations against me over the appointment of Charles Lufumpa as Acting Vice President and Chief Economist are patently false!

My conclusn after careful review of the Charles Lufumpa’s case is that investigatns conducted were very faulty & cannot prove the allegations made against him. My review also showed a well-orchestrated effort to make Mr Lufumpa a scapegoat for failures of ors to do their job

ALLEGATION 15: Disregard of rules concerning leave of absence of VPs or travel of management.

RESPONSE: The President does not monitor or manage time off for staff as that’s done by the Human Resources. The truth is the Vice President had personal medical issues that he had to get attended to (his private life must be respected) that required him to be away for extended periods, as needed, and he travelled with full knowledge of the department of health of the Bank which was monitoring him while away on medical reasons.

ALLEGATION 16: Political lobbying of Heads of State

RESPONSE: It is alleged that as President I basically bribed and corrupted the 16 African Heads of State and governments in the ECOWAS region to support my candidacy for re-election.
The allegation essentially impugns the integrity, leadership and honesty of 16 African presidents and ECOWAS. This is a fanciful and baseless allegation.

ALLEGATION 1: Nt provided

In summary, every single one of the 16 allegations against me in the Disclosure remains unsubstantiated.
I have not violated the Code of Conduct. The Ethics Committee should so find and dismiss the matter.

©️PremiumTimesng.