Thread by @timithelaw

This thread is Dr. @akin_adesina's response to 16 Allegations against him as President @AfDB_Group.
_Extract from @PremiumTimesng

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ALLEGATION 1: Nt provided

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ALLEGATION 2: Appointment of Mrs Chinelo ANOHU-AMAZU

RESPONSE : Ms. Chinelo Anohu-AMAZU was recruited via a...

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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...

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But, I can state categorically that allegations made against her are untrue and defamatory.
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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..

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..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...

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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

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..I approved the recommended hire which was entirely within my power to do.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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ALLEGATION 5: Appointments and promotions of Mrs Maria MULINDI

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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.

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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.
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ALLEGATION 6: Direct contracting and appointment of Victor Oladokun.

RESPONSE: We went to the University together and...

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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...

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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.

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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

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He retired from the Bank at the end of August 2019.
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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;

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..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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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,

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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...

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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.

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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.

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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
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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

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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...

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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
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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...

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...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.

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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.

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The allegation essentially impugns the integrity, leadership and honesty of 16 African presidents and ECOWAS. This is a fanciful and baseless allegation.

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 --- Dr. @akin_adesina on @PremiumTimesng.

👇30 (Last thread- 29 more above☝️). All Threads:

https://twitter.com/timithelaw/status/1265843307420229632?s=19

@FrankNwekeII @ProfOsinbajo @MBuhari @obyezeks @segalink

The continuing thread 👇below is Ex-President, Olusegun Obasanjo (@OluObasanjo1)'s detailed letter to 13 Presidents on the allegations against Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and his sterling successes at @AfDB_Group

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Your Excellencies,
I hope that you're keeping well in the midst..

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of the current #COVID19 pandemic that we are all going through in Africa & all over the world. I'm writing to you in respect of developments @AfDB_Group.

As you may be aware the President of the Bank, Dr. Adesina has performed very well in this position over the past 5 yrs.

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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 $93billion to $208billion, an increase of $155billion, the highest in the history of the Bank since its establishmnt in 1964.

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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...

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... 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Bank has also substantially aligned its financing & operations to help accelerate Agenda 2063 & the High 5 agenda (Light Up & Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialize Africa; Integrate Africa; & Improve the Quality of Life of the People of Africa) are achieving good results.

Over the past four years, it is estimated that 18 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”;...

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...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..

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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 benefited and impacted a total of 333 million Africans.

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You'll agree with me that these achievements are commendable & the Bank has been placed in a strategic position to fast track Africa’s development.
Finally, under Dr. Adesina’s leadership, it has continued to maintain its Triple A (AAA) rating by all global rating agencies..
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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.

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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.

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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 2nd term as President of the Bank by all Heads of State & Govts of ECOWAS region.

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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.

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Despite these achievements & impressive leadership for the Bank & 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..

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..of the Bank to frustrate his re-election. At issue are some allegations made by some whistle-blowers that alleged Dr. Adesina violated Code of Ethics as President. Dr. Adesina strongly denied the allegations as fabrications and misinformation to disparage & discredit him.

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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.

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The Ethic Committee of the Board of Directors, after examination of each of the 16 allegations of the whistle-blowers had dismissed each & all of the allegations as baseless & without any substantiation.
The Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Bank following review..

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..the Ethics Committee report exonerating Dr. Adesina concurred with conclusions & 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

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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 & the Chairman of 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 & governance systems of the Bank. The US Treasury Secretary disparaged the Bank & ridiculed the entire governance
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.. 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 & defend the @AfDB_Group , this might mean the end of the ADB, as its governance will be hijacked away from Africa.

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This video is Dr. @akin_adesina's solid response to the 16 allegations against him as President @afdb_group.

You can watch and download the full 2mins+ video on:
1. Instagram: instagram.com/@timithelaw_

2. YouTube:

cc: @FrankNwekeII @AyoBankole @akaebube

My correct Instagram handle is instagram.com/timithelaw_

Thank you for asking.