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I have never met Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla, the gifted MIT-trained development economist, the managing director of the World Bank and former finance minister and later the minister for external affairs under former president, Olusegun Obasanjo. There was the briefest of encounters around 2006 at BBC complex at Whitecity, London. She was there in her resplendent African wears to grant an interview to the BBC and I was there for a job interview.
I wouldn’t miss such opportunity so I came nearer and managed a hello and a few pleasantries in the Igbo language. Her simplicity was marvelling!
To me and other Nigerians, Okonjo-Iwealla is a hero that led a team of an all-star cast of economic managers between 2003 and 2006, perhaps the best the country had ever seen. Nasir El-Rufai was at the helm of the privatisation program and later as minister of the federal capital administration; Mansur Multar, the current finance minister, headed the Office of Debt Management; while Bode Agusto was head of the budget office; Charles Soludo was (and still is) at the Central Bank.
The Obasanjo team was powerful and successful. The economy was turbo-charged with the privatisation of the telecommunications sector. It was buoyed by growing foreign reserves, reform of the economic sector, due process, strengthening of the naira, and the remarkable decision to wipe out our $35 billion in foreign debt. With a vigorous anti-corruption campaign and the cleaning up of the banks, the path was clear for the most remarkable economic reform Nigeria has ever seen.
Dr. Okonjo-Iwealla, the World Bank Managing Director, and former Nigeria's Minister of Finance, held her audience captivated at a thought-provoking lecture on "The Global Financial Crisis: Impact and Implications for Nigeria."
She declared: "FOR Nigeria, the crisis is a huge challenge; but embedded in that challenge is an opportunity to reposition the economy in a way which would reduce its overwhelming dependence on oil and create a diversified springboard for steadier long-run growth and job creation once the crisis abates. This is the message I want to leave you with."
She preached the gospel of fairness with citizens and being transparent and accountable. “Being accountable and transparent would not be done with slogans, but by communicating and growing on the country’s accumulated assets”. The audience, fellow Nigerians including government ministers listened appreciatively and gave a resounding applause. Who else but her could credibly preach the gospel of accountability and transparency?
Before her World Bank job, it was rumoured that Ban Ki-Moom wanted to offer her the position of Deputy Secretary General of the UN but that Obasanjo blocked the appointment. The job later went to Dr Asha Rose-Migiro of Tanzania.
In London, on 16 March, 2009, Okonjo-Iwealla announced the membership of John Kuffour, former President of Ghana, and another gentleman to an independent, high-level commission of the World Bank, tasked with making recommendations on how the institution is governed so that it can better fulfill its mission of overcoming global poverty.
The Commission was created by World Bank Group President, Robert B. Zoellick in October 2008 to focus on the modernization of World Bank Group governance. The 12 members of the Commission, chaired by former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, have all held or hold senior positions at an international level and are drawn from developed and developing countries.
A good name is better than good oil
REFORMERS: Apart from Ngozi Iwealla; Oby Ezekwesili, Ndi Onyiuke Okereke and Charles Soludo were also members of Obasanjo’s “reformers”.
Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, was appointed Vice President of the World Bank for the Africa Region in 2007 after her position as Minister of Education where she led a comprehensive reform program within the education sector including: Restructuring and refocusing the ministry for the attainment of Education for All (EfA) targets and Millennium Development Goals. She also introduced the Public-Private Partnership models for education service delivery; revamped the Federal Inspectorate Service as an improved quality assurance mechanism and introduced transparency and accountability mechanisms for better governance of the budget.
She served as a founding Director of Transparency International (TI) and as TI’s Director for Africa from 1994 to1999. She worked with Professor Jeffrey Sachs as Director of the Harvard-Nigeria Economic Strategy program, during which time she was appointed as an aide to President Obasanjo. In 2003, she was designated Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence.
As Minister of Solid Minerals from 2005 to 2006, Ms. Ezekwesili oversaw the passage of the Minerals and Mining Act, the establishment of the Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office and the opening of the sector to private participation. Ms. Ezekwesili also served as the Chairperson of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative from 2004 and led the voluntary sign-on of Nigeria to the EITI Principles as well as the first ever process, financial and physical audit of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
Ndi Onyiuke Okereke has managed to damage her reputation as a reformer by her acts of indiscretion including her potentially conflicting roles as the NSE D-G and the chairperson of Transcorp; her fundraising, under the umbrella of ‘Corporate Nigeria’, for the re-election of former President Olusegun Obasanjo during the 2003 elections; her being a staunch supporter of Obasanjo in his bid to run for a third term; her ‘Africa for Obama’ organised a dinner/concert in Lagos purportedly for Obama’s’ campaign which raised about N100m.
She was later arrested by the EFCC, investigated and released. But till date, no one knew what happened to the 100 million Naira. Dr Ndi Okereke ignored all the warning signals about insider dealings in the Nigeria Financial industry. Her NSE collaborated with the Banks to perpetrate massive criminals acts that contributed to the collapse of the Nigeria capital market.
Professor Charles Soludo is currently fighting for a second term, he wages a fierce campaign behind the scenes to be reappointed our central banker two months before his five-year term expires. Soludo was appointed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to his current position five years ago, Mr. Soludo, who was a university lecturer before joining the Obasanjo administration.
He does have supporters, those in the banking industry for whom he has done many favours, or others who simply look at the signature achievement of his tenure— bank consolidation—and conclude that he deserves one more term.
I am still very reluctant to publish an article I wrote about Mr. Soludo because of a fierce campaign by an array of critics determined to stop him from being the Central Bank governor past his sell-by date of May this year; vested interests that includes several chief executives of the banks he supervises, former lieutenants, and prominent lawmakers.
Mr. Soludo is facing growing criticism around his personal conduct while in office, the tactical and strategic decisions he has made since the beginning of the economic crisis as well as a damning official finding that investigated his highly questionable establishment and chairmanship of the African Finance Corporation. Still one wishes to stay in the sidelines and observe and learn.
Mr Soludo is rumoured to have a political ambition, the governorship of his home state, Anambra. Ever since the last political dispensation, he sponsored a PDP candidate for the Aguata Constituency in the House of Representatives. Andy Ubah was so pissed off he sponsored a rival candidate from the Labour party, Hon Umeoji Chukwuma who won the election.
Mr. Soludo recently transformed a sleepy settlement into a festive vision when he brought the elite of the Nigerian financial and bureaucratic tribe to come help him launch the Mgbafor-Soludo Diagnostic Centre. Eyeing some political future?
Must every Nigerian be a governor, a senator or a president?
The capital market is in virtual collapse; the external reserves are being depleted; the naira has crashed; the spectre of inflation and spiralling unemployment are palpable; the fear of bank failures rises. Soludo’s legacy is being rubbished and our dear Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla came around to offer needed advice.
You reap what you sow
The difference between former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and John Kuffour of Ghana; between Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla, Ndi Onyiuke Okereke and Charles Soludo cannot be starker.
While Kuffour is being feted by the World Economic and Financial Community Obasanjo is fighting to rehabilitate himself with the international community because of his odious past, and is currently engaged in a running battle with groups that are hell-bent on stopping him from giving a lecture at the London School of Economics.
A group of Nigerians (NLF) and two other groups, Congolese Resistance Council and the Mbongwana group have denounced him as a cruel African dictator happens to be in the good books of hypocritical British elite colleges, politicians and intellectuals.
One of the comments that followed my piece on The Case against Ndi Onyiuke Okereke cannot therefore be more misguided: “Iwu we all admit was a traitor to our aspirations as a people in a journey towards democracy. Is he still not there? Obasanjo stole without conscience, has he been questioned even as we fight a war against corruption? Yar Adua cannot hold a meeting for 30 minutes without dozing off, has he resigned? How do you expect Onyiuke, (she is due for retirement soon) the woman who has been playing the market she was employed to manage not to carry out insider abuse and withdraw her illicit profit before the market collapsed. How much was she worth when she applied for that job and how many homes does she now have in Ikoyi and Maitama? Please do not think I am cursing my Country. But is this what a Country means”
Nigerians often forget that firstly, a good name is better that all material wealth you would ever acquire. Secondly, political power is not the be all and end all of life. Thirdly, there is life after an honourable service to your fatherland. Fourthly, Nigeria must not collapse before the system's decayed structures will be replaced. Fifthly, in a country where anything goes; “where 419ners, FAKE drug merchants, deceitful politicians” still held sway, one could still hold his head high, succeed and prosper.
Our own Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla, Obiageli Ezekwesili and John Kuffour of Ghana are cases in point.
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