Book on ADB for Launch Tomorrow
The Executive President of the African Business Roundtable (ABR), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, as well as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Charles Soludo, will be on hand in Lagos tomorrow to coordinate activities marking ten years of strategic partnership between the African Development Bank (ADB) and one of Nigeria's foremost consulting groups with multilateral development institutions, Benneen & Tokel Consultants.
The event which has been programmed to coincide with ADB's 40th anniversary will feature perceptions about the ADB by stakeholders and the official presentation of the book, Realities of Adb Operations and Future Challenges written by the Chief Executive of Benneen & Tokel Consultants, Sir Lawrence Ukwu.
"Benneen & Tokel Consultants", explained the Chief Executive of the Company, "has for the past ten years been in strategic liaison with the ADB under the aegis of its Pre-ADB Annual Meetings Workshops in Nigeria and the 40th anniversary of the bank has afforded us the opportunity to mark our effective collaboration with the ADB since 1994"
The ADB, he stated, had equally been mindful of the role of Benneen & Tokel Consultants in the dissemination of information on its activities and had on occasions sent in representatives to the Pre-ADB Annual Meetings Workshops in Nigeria in addition to letters of commendation in appreciation of Benneen Tokel's efforts in this direction.
The 160 - page book the production of which has received the endorsement of the President of the ADB, Dr. Omar Kabbaj, is a compendium of attainments by the ADB right from the time of its first Present Mr. Beheiry of Sudan in 1964, to the incumbent Dr. Omar Kabbaj. In doing so, the book has been able to highlight also the shortcomings of the Bank with a view to paving the way for improvement in the years ahead.
The book also goes down memory lane, recalling the words of late Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, one time Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria while addressing the inaugural meeting of the Board of Governors of the ADB in Lagos forty years ago, "the ADB is first of all a practical demonstration of Africa's faith in unity and progress. It is not only an instrument for economic development but also an expression of African solidarity".
This perception by late Nigeria Prime Minister goes a long way to remind Africans even after forty years since the inception of the ADB that the Bank is theirs and cannot be taken away from them. Unfortunately, some Africans do not see the ADB that way. This group of Africans see the Bank as an establishment in Africa, set up to satisfy the powerful countries of the West supported and aided by their strong analytical and political capitals. On the other hand, majority of Africans believe in the ADB and in its ability to change the economic downturn of the continent into viable economy capable of enhancing the various economic indices of the continent to appreciable levels.
In this belief, the consensus is that the ADB has done appreciably well after years though with pockets of imperfections here and there and this is to be expected since no human endeavour is by any means perfect. The Bank as at year 2004 and under the capable hands of its President, Dr. Kabbaj, has been able to hold its own and has turned the Bank into a compact institution void of unnecessary wastage and squander.
He has been able not only to maintain the Bank's triple "A" rating in the world capital markets, but also has surpassed all known indices attained by the Bank when he took over nine years ago. Without exception, the five past Presidents of the ADB have done extremely well in taking the Bank to greater heights.
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