Former president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has said that he is ready to help Nigeria in any capacity after completing his two terms at the bank.

Adesina, who spoke to journalists on Tuesday after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the presidential villa in Abuja, however noted that he is not looking for a job.

He said he visited Tinubu to formally inform him of the completion of his 10-year tenure and brief him on the bank’s achievements, including its financing support for Nigeria.

“It’s customary and it’s required that I come back home to tell His Excellency, the President, of the completion of my term and also to give him a report of what was achieved during my term,” he said.

Adesina said during his tenure, the AfDB provided roughly $7 billion in financing to Nigeria between 2015 and 2025, compared with $11.1 billion in total financing since the bank began operations in the country in 1971.

“So within ten years we were able to do 63 percent, literally, of that,” he said.

Adesina said Tinubu was pleased with the bank’s contributions and that he used the meeting to discuss the country’s economic direction with the president.

Adesina said he commended Tinubu on the removal of the petrol subsidy and the harmonisation of foreign exchange (FX) windows, describing them as difficult but important reforms.

“These are very, very important, difficult reforms, but they are beginning to bear some fruits, quite some fruits,” he said.

Adesina said the reforms had helped improve foreign exchange availability and attract portfolio investors, while inflation is trending downwards.

“If you look at it, you have a lot more FX available today. You have a lot of portfolio investors that are coming into the country. You have inflation trending downwards,” he said.

“Prices are still a bit high, but inflation is trending downwards.”

He also pointed to changes in how international rating agencies viewed Nigeria, saying their assessments included stable and positive outlooks.

However, Adesina said the country needs to move beyond economic reforms and stabilisation towards structural transformation, growth, and prosperity.

“You have to also now move from the issue of the reforms and stabilisation straight into structural transformation and also growth and prosperity, which is what the President is focusing on,” he said.

On the capacity he could contribute to Nigeria, the former AfDB president said he was willing to help in any role Tinubu considered appropriate.

“My heart is always at home. And in any capacity that His Excellency feels I can help, I can help in anything,” he said.

He stressed that his offer was motivated by his commitment to Nigeria rather than a desire for public office.

“I have a duty, an obligation and a responsibility to do so. And I will,” Adesina said.

Adesina expressed commitment to contributing to Nigeria’s development following his decade leading the AfDB.

Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers state has said that Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is the leader of the Rainbow Coalition.

Fubara, who made the remark while addressing supporters at the unveiling of the coalition’s candidates in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital, with Wike in attendance, asked members of the Rainbow Coalition to stop identifying with different political figures as their leaders, describing Wike as the “leader of the Rainbow Coalition” and his “Oga”.

Fubara said some members who supported him during the political crisis in Rivers still maintained separate leadership identities despite the new political arrangement.

He said the different groups had now come together under one umbrella and should no longer see themselves as separate political camps.

“I’m aware that there are some issues when some persons who followed me when we had the crisis, when you’re in your meeting, you say, ‘my leader, my leader’,” he said.

“We are now in one house. And because we have one house, there is no issue about who is the leader.”

The governor added that although some members might still see him as their leader, they should recognise Wike’s position in the coalition.

He urged members to resolve the issue and move forward as one political family, cautioning against statements that could suggest competing leadership structures within the alliance.

“I might be your Oga, but we have a common leader now,” he said.

“So please, going forward, this issue of ‘my leader, my leader, my leader’—I want it resolved here.”

A Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has sentenced a former banker, Christopher Jackson Edeh, to a total of 39 years’ imprisonment for his involvement in a N2.7 billion fraud.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in a statement issued on Tuesday by Dele Oyewale, Head, Media & Publicity, said Justice O.O. Abike-Fadipe convicted Edeh after finding him guilty of nine counts bordering on fraudulent false accounting and unauthorised access to a computer system.

The commission said Edeh was arraigned on February 28, 2024, over allegations that he altered the bank account details of several customers and government-related entities with intent to defraud.

The affected entities included the Kano State Government Power Intervention Fund, NNPC Trading Limited, Stallion Vision Ltd, the Lagos State Government Blue Line, the State Contributory Pension Account and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University.

According to the EFCC, “In her judgment, Justice Abike-Fadipe held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and consequently convicted Edeh on the nine counts.”

The anti-graft agency said prosecuting counsel, Z.B. Atiku, called three witnesses and tendered several documents in evidence during the trial, while the defence called one witness.

The court sentenced Edeh to five years’ imprisonment without an option of fine on each of counts one to seven, which bordered on fraudulent false accounting.

He was also sentenced to two years’ imprisonment without an option of fine on each of counts eight and nine, relating to unauthorised access to a computer system with intent to facilitate the commission of crimes.

The EFCC added that “The court ordered that all the sentences run concurrently.”