Ahead of Adesina’s Re-Election: Nigeria Twins its Suffrage Privileges by 16.8% before AfDB’s General Meeting on August 27th, 2020

By Abdul Rahman Bangura–

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Freetown, Sierra Leone- Prior to the Africa Development Bank General Meeting slated for August 27th, of this year, Nigeria has virtually made twice as much its franchise sovereignty in the African Development Bank (AfDB) to 16.8% before August 27th 2020. The English West Africa nation’s voting power was recently 8.5%, according to discoveries on the AfDB’s website. According to the news on August 23rd, 2020 Nigeria increased its franchise power by reimbursing subscriptions it had sworn as part of a general capital before the January deadline.

AfDB Group President-Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina is pursuing re-election as the head of the lender after being liberated of allegations of malfeasance. The motion is anticipated to strengthen Nigeria’s backing to maintain Adesina, an erstwhile Minister of Agriculture of Nigeria, in the AfDB presidency for another five year term when the vote holds on August 27th, 2020.

Contrary, in 2015 Adesina competed against Chadian Finance Minister- Kordje Bedoumra, and Cape Verde’s Agriculture Minister-Cristina Duarte, this moment Adesina is the only competitor. Africa’s most populous nation became the biggest rights holder by far, heeded by non-regional members, Germany with 7.4% and the United States with 5.5%, according to a memo sent to governors on August 20th, 2020 that was beheld by Bloomberg.

The annual meetings would take place virtually between August 25 and 27, after they were deferred in May because of the spread of the Novel Coronavirus.

“The format of the meetings has been adapted to consider the physical constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” AfDB said on its website. Last month, an independent panel backed an African Development Bank probe that found no evidence of wrongdoing by Adesina, 60, in his bid to seek re-election as head of the continent’s biggest multilateral lender.

The Independent Review Panel was set up July 2nd, 2020 by the Bureau of Governors of the Bank, following a complaint by the United States, to review the process by which two organs of the bank – the Ethics Committee of the Board and the Bureau of the Board of Governors – had previously acquited Adesina.

Members of the High-level Independent Review Panel include Mary Robinson, who is a former President of the Republic of Ireland and chair of the panel; Hassan Jallow, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Gambia; and Leonar McCarthy, who is a former Director of Public Prosecutions, former Director for the Office of Serious Economic Offences and erstwhile Head of the Directorate of Special Operations of South Africa. McCarthy also served as the Vice President of Integrity for the World Bank for nine years.

The decisions by the panel was also a brush-off to the United States Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, whose denial of the institution’s ethics committee’s original report led to the review. The investigation was commenced after anonymous stoolie blamed Adesina forgiving contracts to familiarities and assigning relatives to strategic roles at the Abidjan-based lender.

Being Africa’s biggest multilateral bank, AfDB in March, granted a $3 billion social bond to help African countries deal with the fallout from the pandemic. And the Bank also initiated a $10 billion crisis-response facility for African countries. Its shareholders include 54 nations on the African continent and 27 countries in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia.

For New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Bangura Reports,  Africa Correspondent

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