A pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, the Yoruba Koya Leadership and Training Foundation, has urged the United States government not to oppose the second term bid of the President of Africa Development Bank, (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, saying that opposing Adesina’s second term ambition was tantamount to opposing the general interests of the African people.
Yoruba Koya gave this position in a letter directed to the United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and signed by the group’s founder and Vice-president, Otunba Ayodeji Osibogun and five other leaders of the organization, including the Vice-Chairman, Board of Trustees, Senator Tokunbo Ogunbanjo; Chairman, United States Chapter, Dr Lanre Babalola; Member, Board of Trustees and the United States-based University Teacher, Dr Oluronke Ogunleye, among others.
The group, while drawing the US government’s attention recent happenings at AfDB, an institution in which the country is a non-regional member, “in respect of a recent probe initiated by CBRE Caledon Partner, Stephen Dowd and engineered by the United States Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin,” described the probe as witch-hunting and an attempt to muscle out Adesina from the management of the bank.
According to it, “This certainly has the appearance of a witch hunt and constitutes an apparent attempt to discredit Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, the President of AfDB,” pointing out that the bank chief had made giant strides in the development of the institution through the introduction and implementation of dynamic projects in the continent.
“Dr Adesina has made giant strides in the development of the bank through the introduction and implementation of dynamic projects in the continent of Africa,” the group declared, even as it further described the investigation as an unnecessary extrajudicial process that undermined the constituted checks and balances of the AfDB designed to curb maladministration and corruption in the organization.
Yoruba Koya condemned the setting aside of the findings of AfDB’s Ethics Committee, saying it amounted to an indictment of the reputation and integrity of the member nations, such as Japan and others that constituted the committee.
It warned that a crisis of confidence was going to be built into AfDB, which might eventually lead to the creation of cleavages that might lead to a breakdown and possible disintegration of the bank” the group said.
“A crisis of confidence is going to be built into AfDB, which may eventually lead to the creation of cleavages that might lead to a breakdown and possible disintegration of the bank” the group warned.
Yoruba Koya, while contending that the success of AfDB would enhance the development of the continent, and would in return reduce the burden of immigration on the US, further warned that the ongoing projects would suffer as a result of lack of continuity in the administration and its set goals and objectives of poverty alleviation, healthcare delivery, entrepreneurship, agricultural industrialization, and general development in the continent of Africa.
The group, therefore, called on Pompeo to intervene so as to stop the meddlesomeness in the affairs of AfDB and restore the dignity and honour for which the American government had been noted for years, saying it was in the best interest of the US government to continue to support the activities of the AfDB and other such initiatives in Africa.
“It is, therefore, in the best interest of the United States Government to continue to support the activities of the African Development Bank and other such initiatives in Africa,” the group declared.
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