Buhari to Adesina: Nigeria ‘ll stand strongly behind you
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday assured the President of African Development Bank, AfDB, Dr Akinwumi Adesina that Nigeria and himself are solidly behind him in his bid to get re-elected.
President Buhari gave the assurance when he hosted Dr. Adesina who paid him a courtesy visit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The President in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina said, “In 2015, when you were to be elected for the first term, I wrote to all African leaders, recommending you for the position.
“I didn’t say because you were a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Minister, and I belonged to the All Progressives Congress (APC), so I would withhold my support. I’ll remain consistent with you, because no one has faulted the step I took on behalf of Nigeria.”
The President pledged that Nigeria would work with all other leaders and stakeholders in AfDB to ensure that Dr Adesina was elected for a second term built on the record of his achievements during his first term.
The African Union had already endorsed the incumbent AfDB President as sole candidate for the continent, but some other stakeholders are trying to ensure that Dr Adesina is re-investigated on some allegations, and rendered ineligible to run.
Giving a background to what was happening in the bank, Dr Adesina, a former Nigerian Minister for Agriculture, said the 16 allegations raised against him were trumped up, “and without facts, evidence, and documents, as required by the rules and regulations of the bank.”
He added that the Ethics Committee of the bank cleared him of all the allegations, and calls for fresh investigation by the United States of America, were against the rules.
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