By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
First of all, I would like to congratulate Dr. Samuel Munzele Maimbo for choosing to aspire to lead the business and development of Africa through his election bid as AfDB President.
I think he put up a spirited fight and needs congratulate.
However, I wish to state that he was failed by an incompetent team that failed to consult, engage and use Zambia’s human resource assets, its historical position both in Southern Africa and at the AfDB.
Here are my reasons;
●The largest African Development Bank shareholder is Nigeria with nearly 9% of the vote. We didn’t seem to know this and we didn’t even bother to go to Nigeria to lobby it and persuade it or make it co-campaigner especially in West Africa were we had a disadvantage.
●The vote comes in the wake of Washington reconsidering a $555 million development-finance commitment to the bank and European nations cutting their overseas assistance budgets. We have a sour relationship currently with USA over the abuse of aid to Zambia and in our campaigns we didn’t seem to help provide a solution to this bleak financial future for the AfDB.
● ADB’s other five largest shareholders are Japan and the United States (each with 15.6% of total shares), the People’s Republic of China (6.4%), India (6.3%), and Australia (5.8%). We didn’t seem to take this into factor.
● We, without much care allowed a second candidate from the SADC region, South African Swazi Bajabulile Tshabalala. No delegation or intense presidential engagement were made to persuade our sister or her government to stand down. We seemed to be comfortable to rely on SADC and COMESA endorsements.
Endorsements are not actual votes.
Between SADC and COMESA are about 30 countires, a sure win…but that block vote disappeared! We looked terribly divided from other regions that had presented a single and unified candidate.
● We attended road shows and exhibition in Dubai and Qatar but missed or neglected to attend key SADC and other regional meetings. Even when we attended, we did so remotely, through Zoom!
● As shown from the initial vote, Dr. Samuel Munzele Maimbo was a good candidate, but crucial to a stand-off when it develops, are bilateral and multinational relations…we failed!
● Maimbo’s opponents were former Ministers of Finance or Central Bank Governors, what happened to involving such peers such as Bwalya Ngandu, Margaret Mwanakatwe and Felix Mutati in the campaign team?
● Zambia has key personalities such Chileshe Kapwepwe who previously served as Executive Director for Africa at the International Monetary Fund. I recognize her current role as Secretary General of COMESA but a way would have been found.
● Do you know that Zambia has a distinguished record at the AfDB?
Do you know that Willa D’Israeli Mung’omba, a respected lawyer, banker and politician, was elected president of the Bank Group in 1980.
He led ambitious reforms that saw the Board revise the the Bank’s Charter, allowing the sale of one-third of the Bank’s shares to USA, Japan, China and Australia?
Do you know that Mungomba was instrumental in bringing Zambians such as Dr. Caleb Fundanga who was Senior Advisor to the AfDB President.
Fundanga later became Bank of Zambia Governor. Did we involve him in this campaign?
● then there is a factor that makes us lose elections, the francophone (21 countries) and Arabic factor (13 countries). Did we have a plan if the vote went to the wire how to enlist campaigners to tackle the francophone or arabic regions or seek a country(ies) to lobby for us?
Anyway…