As predicted by experts, Nigeria’s outgoing Minister of
Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina, 55, on Thursday evening in Abidjan, capital of
Cote d’Ivoire, was elected eighth President of the African Development Bank
(AfDB) during its 50th Annual Meetings, after garnering 58.1 per cent of total
votes cast, including 60.50 per cent of regional votes.
He becomes the first Nigerian to occupy the position in the
group’s half century existence.
A statement by the development finance institution, said
Adesina emerged after six rounds and over four hours of voting that saw seven
rivals from across the continent defeated in a keenly-contested election, which
lasted more than four hours.
All the 54 regional members have a combined 3,844,574 votes,
representing a 59.509 per cent voting power, while the 26 non-regional members,
control 2,592,862 votes and or 40.491 per cent.
Analysis of the voting power shows that Nigeria has the
highest of 595,838 votes or 9.256 per cent, followed by Egypt and South Africa
with almost 11 per cent of the votes between them.
Samura M.W Kamara from Sierra Leone was edged out of the
race in the very first round, followed by Ethiopia’s Sufian Ahmed and Birama
Boubacar Sidibe from Mali in the second and third round, respectively. Tunisian
Jaloul Ayed was eliminated in the fourth round, while Zimbabwean, Thomas
Sakala, lost out in the fifth round. This left Kordjé Bedoumra from Chad and
Cristina Duarte from Cape Verde it out with Adesina in the last round of
voting, which itself lasted almost two hours, leading to tension as the result
was being expected.
Adesina’s closest rival, Bedoumra slugging polled 31.62 per
cent of the total votes with 36.63 per cent regional votes. In distant third
was Duarte with 10.27 per cent of the total votes and 2.87 per cent regional
votes.
The new AfDB President replaces Rwanda’s Donald Kaberuka,
whose tenure expires on September 1, 2015, for an initial five-year term.
“It went very well. We are really elated and grateful we
have delivered this for Nigeria. We had a great candidate and a lot of
support,” Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters, after the
result was announced.
An equally elated Dr Obi Iwuagwu of the Department of
International Relations, University of Lagos, who told our correspondent on
Wednesday, that Adesina is favoured to clinch the AfDB top job, told Daily
Independent on Thursday that one of the things that worked for Adesina was that
“the man was eminently qualified”.
Continuing, he said: “I am excited that he won. This is a
sweet victory for Nigerians. For the first time in a long while, our brother
African countries have begun to accord us the respect that we deserved as the
biggest and most powerful country in Africa”.
He added that as a major stakeholder in the bank, Nigeria
should have a say in deciding who becomes what in the bank, adding that the
election has demonstrated that Nigeria has taken its well deserved position in
the continental body.
He expressed absolute confidence in the ability of Adesina
to conduct the affairs of the bank in accordance with best practices available
across the world.
“I don’t have any doubt that he will work well. One notable
thing is the way both the outgoing administration of Goodluck Jonathan and the
incoming administration of Muhammadu Buhari worked together to achieve this
presidency. It has shown that we are going to see a new and better Nigeria very
soon.
The cheering news comes as Nigeria prepares for the
inauguration of the newly elected administration of President-elect, Muhammadu
Buhari, which holds today.
Buhari had in April communicated his backing of Adesina’s
candidacy to the Ghanaian President, John Dramani Mahama, who is the current
chairperson of the ECOWAS.
The President-elect said that his support for Adesina’s
candidacy was not just because he is Nigerian, but his “proven track record in
a career that predates his position as Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture and
Rural Development”.
Adesina, son of a poor farmer, has years of experience of
working in Francophone and Anglophone countries, and a passion to help
eradicate poverty in Africa by reducing unemployment and inequality among
African youth. He is also an agricultural development expert with 24 years of
experience in developing and managing successful agricultural Programmes across
Africa”.
Until his appointment as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture
and Rural Development in 2011, he was the Vice President, Policy and
Partnerships Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
He has also held senior leadership positions in a number of
agricultural institutions in the world.
The new AfDB boss holds a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural
Economics from the University of Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University) and a PhD in
Agricultural Economics from Purdue University. He worked at the Rockefeller
Foundation since winning a fellowship from the foundation as a senior scientist
in 1988. From 1999 to 2003, he was the representative of the Foundation for the
southern African area. He is at present an associate director for food
security. In July 2007, he was awarded the YARA Prize for the African Green
Revolution in Oslo. In 2008, Purdue University’s College of Agriculture gave
him its Distinguished Agricultural Alumni Award. In 2010, he was awarded an
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Franklin and Marshall College.
In 2013, Adesina was named African Person of the Year by
Forbes magazine for his agricultural reforms. “He is a man on a mission to help
Africa feed itself,” the publication said.
“My goal is to make as many millionaires, maybe even
billionaires, from agriculture as possible,” he said while accepting the Forbes
award.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and biggest
economy, and a leading shareholder in the AfDB.
The appointment of Adesina, after months of intensive
lobbying across the continent, analysts breaks the unwritten rule that the top
job should go to someone from a small to medium-sized country.
