Editor, RE: “Why Dr Kaberuka should snub AU top job” (The New Times, August 21). To compare the capitalization of the African development Bank ($100 billion) to the budget of the African Union ($416 million) is to compare apples and oranges. A bank’s “stock in trade” is money hence the huge capitalization. The AU as an organisation has a wide reach in terms of influencing geo-politics and that cannot be quantified in dollars. While Dr Donald Kaberuka may have the CV to do any job out there, the writer at the same time said that the former AfDB chief “would be happy to support any effort that would contribute to the transformation of Africa.” What better platform than the AU to do this? His stellar record at AfDB almost guarantees goodwill from all member nations, an ingredient that was clearly missing in the applications of the three candidates tossed aside in the Kigali AU Summit. Leadership is primarily about service and Kaberuka’s managerial talents would be of great service to Africa at AU regardless of the writer’s assessment that “he’s better off an economist than a politician”. Regardless of Kaberuka’s economics credentials, the AfDB presidency is a political appointment. If you have any doubts, look at the current president’s credentials. Dr Akinwumi Adesina is an agricultural economist, not the ideal training to run a large continental bank. Before his ascendancy to the AfDB, Kaberuka was finance minister in Rwanda — another political appointment which he executed impeccably. His political leadership credentials are therefore not in doubt. EMB
