AfDB President Adeshina bags Obafemi Awolowo’s prize for leadership

The Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership on Thursday announced former Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria and current President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, as winner of this year’s award.

Awolowo, in whose honour the Award was instituted, was First Premier of Western Region and, later, former Opposition Leader in the Federal Parliament, who later became Nigeria’s Federal Commissioner for finance (now known as Minister of Finance) and Vice Chairman, Federal Executive Council under the regime of General Yakubu Gowon.

The sage, who played crucial roles in Nigeria’s constitutional and political development during the country’s colonial and postcolonial history, was one of Nigeria’s and indeed Africa’s foremost leaders. 

Chairman, Selection Committee of the Prize, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, made this known at a press conference, held at Gbagada, Lagos, and attended by other members of the committee including Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Ambassador Tokunbo Awolowo – Dosumu, Chief Lai Ogunbanji, Prof. Sat Obiyan, Prof. Banji Oyeyinka, Dr. Dele Seteolu, among others.

Anyaoku said the recipient of the Leadership Prize for the 2023, Dr. Adesina, emerged from among numerous distinguished personalities across the globe whose names were submitted before the committee, after a careful, detailed and rigorous screening process.

He recalled that the Leadership Prize was a direct outcome of the Special Dialogue held in July 2011 and themed, “Transformational Leadership and Good Governance: Lessons from the Awolọwọ Example,” saying that the dialogue highlighted the fact that one of the greatest challenges facing African countries was the dearth of good leadership, and consequently recommended that the Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ Foundation should institute a Prize for Leadership to encourage, recognize, reward and celebrate excellence in leadership.

He said the prize award, which is the fourth in the series,” not only confers considerable honour and recognition on the recipient, but also serves as a strong incentive to other persons to pursue excellence in leadership and good governance.”

It will be recalled that the recipient of the maiden award of the Prize was announced on 19 December, 2012, while the ceremony for the presentation of the award was held on 6 March, 2013.

The award ceremony for Dr. Adeṣina is scheduled to hold in March 6th 2024, which coincided with Chief Awolọwọ’s birth anniversary.

“After a careful, detailed and rigorous screening process, the Selection Committee was unanimous in deciding the recipient of this year’s Prize. I have great pleasure to inform you that the considered view of the Selection Committee is that of all the nominees presented before it, the person adjudged to possess the attributes for the award to the highest degree and therefore is the recipient of the 2023 Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ Prize for Leadership is Dr. Akinwunmi Ayọdeji Adeṣina, CON, President of the African Development Bank,” he declared.  

“Dr. Adeṣina, a former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture in the administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, is currently serving a second term as President of African Development Bank.

“Besides being a Pan Africanist with enthusiastic commitment to the positive transformation of the continent, he has demonstrated core leadership qualities that have been associated with Chief Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ, and which this Prize is meant to encourage and reward. Besides his manifest intellectual leadership, Dr. Adeṣina is a person whose outstanding leadership has occasioned public policies that have positively transformed millions of lives. 

“As Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria, Dr. Adeṣina introduced innovative reforms such as the fertilizer sector reforms, which virtually eliminated corruption in the sector and ensured that farmers actually benefitted from government’s subsidized fertilizers. He developed an electronic-wallet system that allowed farmers to receive electronic vouchers for seeds and fertilizers directly on their mobile phones, thereby cutting off the middlemen in the system. Not less than 15 million farmers benefitted from this scheme within four years,” he added.

Anyaoku said Adesina, since assuming office as AfDB president had worked relentlessly to contribute to the positive transformation of the continent, noting that he had brought leadership to bear in addressing some of the challenges confronting the continent, including leading and supporting innovative efforts to fight hunger and poverty the continent.

He said Adesina as the boss of AfDB, introduced what he termed the “High 5s” aimed to light up and power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa; and improve the quality of life of the people of Africa, adding: “The impactful and successful nature of this programme has been widely acknowledged.”

“In 2019, under the leadership of Dr. Adeṣina, the shareholders of the African Development Bank increased the capital base of the Bank from $US93 billion to US$208 billion, an increase of over 123 percent, the highest capital increase of the Bank since its establishment in 1964,” Anyaoku said.

The former Commonwealth Secretary – General described Dr. Adeṣina as a kind hearted and generous person who believed in supporting the less privileged and younger persons, saying that he demonstrated this when, at the event where he was given the World Food Prize, he announced that he would devote the $US 250,000 cash tied to the prize to supporting young people by establishing the World Hunger Fighters Foundation to support young people in the fight against global hunger which several young people had so far benefitted from.

Giving further background of the Leadership Prize, Anyaoku, said that the Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ Prize for Leadership was an initiative of the Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ Foundation, which was set up in April 1992 to serve as the custodian of Chief Awolọwọ’s intellectual and leadership legacy.

According to the elder statesman, the Foundation was established as an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organisation dedicated to immortalising the democratic and development-oriented ideals of the sage, Chief Awolọwọ, recalling that it had sought, over the years, to pursue its mission through various activities.

He listed the activities of the award day,to include the periodic hosting of Dialogues designed to examine critical issues of national concern with a view to proposing viable alternative strategies for their solution.