The Federal Government has tackled the United States over its call for an independent probe into charges by whistleblowers against the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina.

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, made the government’s position known in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the AfDB’s Board of Governors, Kaba Niale, on May 28.

The letter expressed Africa’s most populous country’s support for AfDB’s ethics committee’s findings and rejected the call for an independent probe by the US.


The PUNCH reports that whistleblowers in the AfDB have alleged embezzlement and favouritism under Adesina, who is bidding for a second five-year term at the helm.

After the allegations were made, the AfDB’s ethics committee investigated the claims and found them “baseless”.

The bank’s ethics committee also “totally” exonerated Adesina, saying the whistleblowers’ 15-page complaint “rested on no objective, solid facts”.

But on May 22, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote a letter to the bank’s board faulting the outcome of an internal inquiry clearing Adesina, and demanded the appointment of “an independent outside investigator of high professional standing.”

Reacting, the Nigerian government said the US demand for an independent probe was outside of the laid down rules, procedures, and governing system of the bank.