Dr. Akinwummi Adesina has narrated the journey that culminated in his election as President of African Development Bank Group (AfDB) on May 28, 2015, in Abidjan, for the first five-year term and re-elected in 2020 for another five-year term that will end this year.

He told the story at the 14th convocation lecture he delivered at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). The topic was ?Advancing Africa?s positioning within global development and geopolitical dynamics.?

He started by appreciating his then Principal, former president, Goodluck Jonathan, who nominated him for the position, and also confessed that his dream which was clearly coming to pass then would have failed if former president, Muhammadu Buhari did not endorse it.

?I have come to realise that nobody gives you space in any profitable venture in life, you take the space. It took the efforts and connections of so many people, leaders, for me to have emerged as the President of AfDB.

?Firstly, it took someone like former President Goodluck Jonathan to nominate me for that, for which I?m eternally grateful. When it was time for campaign, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, gave me strategies I needed, and also the place I needed to go to be able to succeed in my campaign. He also took me to somebody I had never known nor met before, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who also played a significant role in the journey.

?Former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, accompanied me to Namibia to campaign. Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, also supported me in campaigning for many of these states. Former Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida was also instrumental to the success.

?But I want to say a very important thing. If President Buhari had not supported my candidacy, it was dead on arrival. For instance, I went on campaigns around the world. I got to a particular country, they said, sorry, we can?t see you. I asked, why? They said, because the government has changed in Nigeria. There?s a new president that?s coming in. And we don?t know whether he?s going to support you. Sadly, I have never met President Buhari ever before.

?I was in Paris. Everybody was running away from me because they don?t know whether my candidacy was valid, viable, or not. I was confused, and was losing hope speedily. I reached out to my state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, to inform him about the challenge.

?He picked up his phone and gave me the number of somebody to call at the Villa. I placed that call, it was Tunde Sabiu, who was working for President Buhari then. He took the phone to President Buhari. Mind you, I?ve never spoken to President Buhari in my life before then, and I said Mr. President, sir, I?m Nigeria?s candidate for the AfDB President. I am roaming the streets of Paris because nobody knows whether I?m going to be a viable candidate. They said you are new, and maybe they don?t know how you?re going to support me. He said, when are you coming to Nigeria? I said, immediately you give me an order.

?I made my way to Nigeria. It was former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, that took me to his house. I never met Atiku before. I was meeting him for the first time. President Buhari said to me, Dr. Adesina, I have followed your career without you knowing for a long time. I know you as a person of integrity and professionalism. I will support your candidacy, even though you are a PDP member, and I was extremely grateful and relieved. I also enjoyed great support from former Vice President, Namadi Sambo. I can tell you that I am not a product of myself. I am a product of trust and support of so many or all of our leaders.

?I visited former President Buhari in Kaduna recently when we there to launch a special agro-industrial processing zones, I went to him after the event, and I said, Mr. President, I came to say thank you again. And I said, I need to remind you of what I did when you became President. I came to Nigeria at the time as an ex-minister. I went to the Eagle Square, during the inauguration on the 29th of May, 2015 as I was elected, 28th of May, 2015.

?And as I tried to enter the Eagle Square VIP box, I was denied access being a former minister. So, I went to where the soldiers were outside. I had left 81 ministers of finance in Abidjan to attend the event. I told them, I have to go home and say thank you to all the people who supported me before I could do anything. So, I arrived in Nigeria shortly after my election as the AfDB President.

?At the Eagle Square, I was denied entry into the VIP box. I stood in the sun for three hours, waiting for the opportunity to say ?thank you? to President Jonathan and President Buhari. There was a soldier guy there who took a newspaper and put it over my head. I said, no, don?t worry, I?ve never seen a good minister of agriculture that dies in the sun.

?And as President Jonathan was walking out to go and give his final address, I was there. I moved very closely to the red carpet. Your Excellency, Mr. President, thank you, sir. Without you, we wouldn?t have won. He said, congratulations, Akin. He went, he came back, gave a salute, and he was in the car, off.

?Now, I have to see President Buhari. How would I do that? Soldiers were everywhere, and so this guy told me, well, President Buhari will be coming right down in a few minutes. He will look only to his right, not to his left. And on the right, we?ll have the Service Chiefs. So, which means, don?t go anywhere. I said to myself, I can?t come all the way from Abidjan without getting what I wanted. I will say thank you anyway. So, as he was coming down, I moved to the right. I crossed the carpet. The Service Chiefs saw me, and said congratulations, Dr. Adesina. I said, sorry, I don?t want to disrupt anything. I just came to say ?thank you? to President Buhari. Oh, he said, go straight to the end of the line, where the late Admiral Alex Bade was standing. I told him, he said, stand on my left side. I stood there. President Buhari came, and he looked up. I was the first person that he saw. I said, Mr. President, I want to ?thank you? for your support. I just came to say thank you, because I have got the whole of ministers around the world in Abidjan waiting. But I must say this before I can do anything. And he said, oh, congratulations.

?We know he has a wary sense of humour. He said, for one moment, I thought my Chief of Defence Staff was wearing a mufti. And so when I was in Kaduna to tell him all these, he laughed. And I got up, and I crossed my head for him to say thank you, sir. And he said, you are a very well brought up man. Why am I saying this? When you are sent on an errand, you have to give account to those who sent you there. It has been the greatest joy of my life to start my continent.

?To be given the trust, the resources, the platform, the support to change and transform the continent of my own birth. This was not a job. It was a mission. When I joined the AfDB, thanks to all the work of our shareholders and my staff, the capital of the bank was $93 billion. Today, the capital of the bank is $318 billion.

?Three years ago, the AfDB was rated as the best multinational financial institution in the world. For the last two years, the AfDB was ranked as the most transparent financial institution in the world. In what they call ?Publish What You Fund?, which measures transparency around the world, last year the bank scored 98.9 percent, which is the highest ever in the history of that index in the world. That has been the journey. I want to say today I am proud of what I am leaving behind.

?Africa must chart its future, relying not on benevolence of others, but on its own self-determination of self-reliance, building reliable alliances, leveraging opportunities in this global dynamics, while putting Africa first. Only then will Africa be great again and optimistic that we will make that happen.? (Daily Sun)

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