Akinwumi Adesina offers to help Nigeria after meeting Tinubu, but says he is not seeking a job

Former African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina said on Tuesday, October 27, after meeting President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja that he was ready to help Nigeria in any capacity Tinubu considered appropriate. Adesina said he was not seeking a government job, and no appointment was announced after the meeting.

Adesina told journalists he had returned to brief Tinubu on the completion of his two terms as president of the bank and its work during his decade in office. He said his willingness to help came from a sense of duty to Nigeria, rather than a search for a new post.

What Adesina said about serving Nigeria

Adesina said the African Development Bank provided approximately $7 billion in financing to Nigeria between 2015 and 2025. He described that as about 63% of the $11.1 billion the bank had committed to the country since it began operating there in 1971. Those figures were his account of the bank’s support during his tenure.

His record in government and at the development bank

An agricultural economist, Adesina served as Nigeria’s minister of agriculture and rural development from 2011 to 2015 under former President Goodluck Jonathan. He was elected the first Nigerian president of the African Development Bank in 2015, won a second five-year term in 2020 and completed his tenure in 2025. That background helps explain why a possible role for him in Nigeria’s development policy drew attention after the meeting.

Adesina also praised Tinubu’s economic reforms, including the removal of the fuel subsidy and the harmonisation of foreign-exchange windows, Punch reported. He urged the government to move beyond stabilisation toward structural change, growth and prosperity. Those were Adesina’s assessments and recommendations; the meeting produced no announced policy assignment for him.