Presidential aide Femi Adesina says only President Muhammadu Buhari has the confidence to confront ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo and survive it.
Adesina, in a piece titled, ‘Buhari Applause For Akinwumi Adesina’, compared Obasanjo to “America and some other world powers”, adding that “you have every right to shiver in the broiling sun” when they come after you.
But the President’s spokesperson, in the piece published on his website on Friday, said, “President Buhari stood against the wishes of America on AfDB Presidency” and supported the re-election bid of African Development Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina.
Adesina’s re-election as the bank’s president was preceded by a series of issues. Prominent among these is the United State’s rejection of the report of the bank’s Ethics’ Committee investigating nepotism allegations against Adesina.
Commenting on Adesina’s re-election, Buhari’s spokesperson wrote, “The strife is o’er, the battle done. But it was by no means easy. It took so much: tact, diplomacy, guts, deft footworks, prayers, yes, prayers, and so many other things.
“But today, we can noise it all around. Dr Akinwumi Adesina is now elected for another five-year term as President of the African Development Bank.
“If America and some other world powers come after you, you have every right to shiver in the broiling sun. It’s like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo telling you to dismount from the horse of leadership in Nigeria. Only a Muhammadu Buhari can look him straight in the eyes, and say; No sir. And survive it.”
Quoting Buhari’s reaction to Akinwumi Adesina’s victory, the President’s spokesperson said, “He (Adesina) deserves it (re-election as AfDB president).”
He, however, noted that Buhari would not have supported the AfDB President if “Adesina had peradventure been tainted with the slightest whiff of corruption or any other unethical act.”
