Candidate for re-election in May, the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Nigerian Akinwumi Adesina, is the subject of embarrassing accusations by "whistleblowers", according to a document received Monday by AFP, initially unveiled by Le Monde.

"Unethical behavior, personal enrichment, obstacle to efficiency, favoritism, (activities) affecting confidence in the integrity of the bank and involvement in political activities": this is a real indictment against their president, in this fifteen-page document, these anonymous "whistleblowers" presenting themselves as "concerned employees of the AfDB", the first development finance institution in Africa, based in Abidjan.

In a statement issued Monday following the article published in Le Monde, Adesina, 60, refuted the accusations en bloc, which he called "false and baseless allegations." He also indicated that internal investigations were ongoing.

Elected in 2015 for a five-year term, Adesina, Nigeria's former agriculture minister, has so far appeared to have no rival for a second term, after receiving support from the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States.

In their letter dated "April 2020" sent to AfDB Governors, the whistleblowers accuse Mr. Adesina of favouritism in numerous appointments of senior officials, especially fellow Nigerians, and of appointing or promoting persons suspected or convicted of fraud or corruption, or to have granted them comfortable severance pay without punishing them.

Between 2016 and 2018, during "the major recruitment campaign that accompanied the restructuring launched by President Adesina", "about 25% of the new managers recruited were Nigerians", while they represented 9% of hires until then, which corresponded to Nigeria's share of the AfDB's shareholding, denounce the whistleblowers.

Among those recruited or promoted to senior positions are a brother-in-law and childhood friend of Mr. Adesina, or former aides when he was a minister in Nigeria, according to the whistleblowers.

Sabotage

They also wonder about a possible "personal enrichment" of Mr. Adesina. Rewarded in 2017 and 2019 with two international prizes totalling 750,000 dollars (nearly 700,000 euros), Mr. Adesina attended the presentations of these awards, in the United States and South Korea, accompanied by delegations of "dozens of people", at the expense of the AfDB. But did he hand over the amount of his prizes to the Bank, they wonder?

The whistleblowers also accuse Mr. Adesina of "the use of the Bank's resources for his promotion and personal enrichment". Indeed, Mr. Adesina has obtained the intellectual property and receives the copyright of his biography, commissioned and paid by the AfDB to an author.

The whistleblowers said they initially approached the AfDB's ethics committee in January, but then realized that "employees close to the president were sabotaging all attempts by the ethics committee to perform its functions." They also denounce "attempts to discover their identities".

A charismatic economist with a good international image, Akinwumi Adesina, who always wears a brightly colored bow tie in public, vigorously denied the accusations, which come less than two months before the appointment of the next AfDB President. scheduled for May 28.

"I am fully convinced that on the basis of facts and evidence, due process of review and transparency will reveal that all of this is just false and baseless allegations," he said.

"The Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors is currently carrying out its action within the framework of its internal investigation systems. Let the Committee complete its investigation and work without interference from anyone or any media," he added.

The AfDB, one of the world's top five multilateral development banks, carried out a giant $115 billion capital increase in October 2019, considered a personal success for its president.

The AfDB has 80 shareholder countries (54 African countries, 26 non-African countries, europe, america and Asia).

Mr. Adesina is the first Nigerian to chair the AfDB, whose largest shareholder is Nigeria with 9%. Turmoil followed by numerous departures of executives, complaining of his "authoritarianism", had agitated the Bank after his arrival.

Asked by AFP, the AfDB did not specify whether the appointment process was delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak.