ALL roads will lead to Abidjan Sofitel Hotel today where the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), fondly referred to as Africa’s ‘optimist-in-chief’, Akinwumi Adesina, PhD, will be celebrated by friends and relations.
For the record, the African Development Bank (AfDB) cannot pick up any bills for the birthday celebration. No dime of the Bank can be used in any way to entertain anyone in the capital of Cote d’Ivoire for the celebration of unarguably the most consequential President in the Bank’s history.
It is unthinkable, unethical and even illegal to do so to the AfDB President whose second and last term will end on the 31st of August 2025. The auditors are quite strict about such ethical and financial regulation issues. All the guests are well aware of the relationship that should exist between them and Adesina’s staff who may help the guests of the President at the airports.
This simple corporate governance issue is one of the critical factors that have rated the AfDB as the best development bank in the World. The Bank for Africa isn’t run like some financial institutions or even Central Banks of some African countries where the Governors are at the beck and call of the Presidents and even their wives. Although it is an African Bank, there are so many powerful stakeholders therein who would not allow even little, little foxes to spoil the vines of the Bank.
Now to the brass tacks, there is a time for everything: a time to work and a time to celebrate. Today is a time to celebrate one of our significant ones who has made Nigeria and Africa proud. The Guardian 2021 “Man of the Year” is again worth celebrating as he reaches another milestone that will be modestly marked on his work beat, today.
Yours sincerely was The Guardian MD/Editor-in-Chief when the newspaper’s Editorial Board crowned him “Man of the Year 2021.” The title of my preface to the essay says it all, ‘Proudly Nigerian, Proudly African’. Besides, the subtitle to the original essay ‘Hope for Nigeria and Africa of Our Dream…’ written by the newspaper’s young intellectuals, Femi Adekoya, PhD, and Wole Oyebade, PhD, who are today the Editor and Deputy Editor (Daily), respectively, speaks volumes to the quality of Adesina, a first class graduate of the School of Agriculture of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He completed his doctorate at the University of Purdue in the United States.
Today, let me borrow from my preface to the essay and the original essay on Akinwumi Adesina, The Guardian’s 2021 Man of the Year, as a guide. Here is an excerpt from the preface and the original essay:
‘…Our intricate choice in a year ravaged by too many local disasters, awful leadership and the pandemic comeback is no jolly ride for this newspaper’s Editorial Board and its star-studded institutions.
In no particular order, the organic shortlist had: accomplished and award-winning personalities in Nollywood and Music industries for their contributions to Nigeria’s cultural diplomacy. The plight of beleaguered Nigerian masses that are anxiously awaiting a Nigeria that works for all also jolted attention. Widows and victims of mindless conflicts, notably those that have been bearing the brunt of protracted insecurity did linger on minds and moved emotions. Prisoners of conscience that are sacrificing personal comfort in defence of nationhood and revolts against the State’s oppression couldn’t have been overlooked, in this regard.
Even a few Nigerian representatives in the international community were strong contenders. But the Board settled for a persona whom the truth did set free and whose conscience feared no accusation. And to this rare persona that turned one of the most difficult corners in history, an African ambassador indeed and in truth, a beacon of light, the positive face of Nigeria, even when the embers begin to burn low, an indefatigable voice of change and courage to speak truth to powers, to this continental footnote and hope of a brighter Africa to come, belongs The Guardian’s Person of the Year 2021.
And so, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, President of African Development Bank stands taller in 2021 and there are deliverables from his choice. For fighting a good fight of faith in an African institution for Africa’s development, for surviving a curious persecution by a superpower-stakeholder in the African Bank he leads, unarguably a valuable lesson in self-reliance, for showing the global community a stark reminder that only Africans can engineer a sustainable development agenda that the continent needs, for confirming that no amount of foreign intervention can develop African countries better than its people setting up their own plan for development, for reliving a 1976 bold statement to the superpowers that Africa has indeed come of age, for developing a development paradigm that Africa too can create its own Davos, for showing that Nigeria too has qualified and strong men who can develop strong institutions to lead Africa, and the Black race; for making iconic Nelson Mandela to sleep well as an oracle who was persuaded that Africa and the black people of the world would not develop until Nigeria could wake up …, Dr Akinwumi Adesina is The Guardian’s Person of the Year 2021’.
It isn’t just so easy to celebrate Dr Adesina as “an unapologetic Pan-Africanist” as Kingsley Okeke described him in 2020 when his second term bid faced stiff opposition from expected quarters in America, their America. Okeke contextualised this at the critical time in 2020, “Dr Adesina is a resolute unapologetic Pan-Africanist. His hope-laden speeches continue to reverberate across the continent, inspiring a new wave of optimism, not just in young leaders eager to contribute to building a new Africa on their own terms but also helping to leapfrog Africa’s infrastructural development”.
And so, as we celebrate Adesina, one of Nigeria’s best brand ambassadors today, I recall my ‘Inside Stuff” article here titled: What if Buhari had endorsed Osinbajo or Adesina in 2023” (August 10, 2024) from a contextual report of an event in Lagos where I saw Osinbajo and Adesina together. Here is an excerpt from the article.
‘…As I raised my head again and saw Adesina resplendent in his white apparel, my mind raced to the scholar Dr. Victor Oladokun of AfDB, the event’s very resourceful MC introduced as Africa’s ‘Optimist-in-Chief’ (Adesina), unarguably emerging as the most consequential President the African Development Bank has ever produced, another what if? overwhelmed me: what if Buhari had called up Adesina and told him to resign as the President of AfDB to return to serve his fatherland while assuring him of his support? What if the Buhari we expected in 2015 had called all African leaders and told them that the President of AfDB would be needed to lead his country to build on the back of Buhari’s legacy? What if Buhari had apologised to other stakeholders and shareholders including the United States, why The Guardian’s “2021 Man of the Year” had to be supported by the ruling party to lead Nigeria, Africa’s very strategic nation to the next level?
“And so as I began to reflect again in the hall on the place of Buhari in the mess Nigeria is going through at the moment, I asked myself what happened to my country, which is listed as harbouring some of the best brains in the world and at the same time incredibly parading some of the multidimensionally unworthy leaders at most levels…’
So many ‘what ifs’ concerning Africa’s most populous nation and spring of hope for the black race. But don’t drop this until you read what this same Adesina told Africa on November 28, 2023, when he delivered The Guardian (Nigeria) 40th-anniversary lecture titled, “For the world to respect Africa…” (https://guardian.ng/politics/for-the-world-to-respect-africa/ in which he noted clearly:
‘…We must find solutions to our many challenges in Africa. While we must deal with bread-and-butter development issues, we must think strategically as we set ourselves upon a path of also becoming wealthy nations. Our countries must become great contributors to global wealth and development financing for others.”
Anyway, let’s celebrate one of our best brains who will be returning home from September 1, 2025, to see how the government of the land of his birth has been managing poverty amidst a crushing energy mix, unbearable prices, and hyperinflation that our dealers, sorry leaders don’t want us to talk about at the moment.
In the main, 65 loud cheers to Akinwumi Adesina, “Proudly Nigerian, proudly African.”
- Oloja is former editor of The Guardian newspaper.