She was recently listed as one of the
most powerful women in the world. Her name conjures up the image of an
Amazon who symbolises excellence and the height of intellectual
achievement. She is by no means a role model and a worthy example of the
level Nigerian women can attain if given the opportunity to excel.
There is also no doubt that the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, is one of Nigeria’s proud exports. One cannot but admire
her simplicity and self-effacing demeanour. Personally, I am in awe of
her spartan fashion style. It portrays a woman not given to vanities or
the mundane. For someone who has achieved global acclaim, one would
expect her to wear her achievements like a diadem as most Nigerians of
even lesser status are won’t to do. But not so for our finance minister
who is found to usually spot her simple Ankara fabric and trademark
round head tie jauntily placed on her head. She seems not to take
herself too seriously.
That Okonjo-Iweala is loved and spoken
of in fond terms by ordinary Nigerians is also not in doubt. This
outpouring of love was displayed in 2012 when she contested the position
of the President of the World Bank. Many Nigerians rooted for her. Her
quest to be African’s first woman to head the Breton Wood institution
became a national obsession. With the media rooting for her candidacy,
her fellow citizens thought she was qualified to lead the foremost
global financial institution. When she lost, Africa was disappointed.
Prior to her 2003 appointment by Obasanjo as finance minister and head
of the Economic Management Team, only a few Nigerians knew her. As a
finance minister, she was known to have tenaciously used her influence
to negotiate a deal with the Paris Club to pay a portion of Nigeria’s
external debt (US $12bn) in return for an $18bn debt write-off. Her role
in the deal was widely acknowledged.
During this time, the Harvard-trained
economist was also known for her insistence on accountability in public
spending and budgeting. Among many of her well-known achievements was
the practice of publishing each state and local government’s monthly
financial allocations in the newspapers. This went a long way in
increasing transparency in governance. She was also instrumental in
helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign credit rating (of BB
minus) from Fitch and Standard & Poor’s. Nigeria then was considered
as having defaulted on its sovereign debt in 1983 (debt rescheduling is
considered a type of default by rating agencies).
In spite of the controversy that
beclouded her removal by Obasanjo, Okonjo-Iweala left with her
reputation intact as one of Nigeria’s most hard-working and celebrated
ministers of that era. She returned to the World Bank having been
appointed as the Managing Director in 2007. To underscore the importance
of the role she played in her first term, President Goodluck Jonathan
appointed her as Minister of Finance with an expanded portfolio as the
Coordinating Minister for the Economy in 2011. But how well has she
performed in her second coming? Has the Jonathan administration provided
the enabling environment for her economic policies to impact positively
on the economy? As a coordinating minister, Okonjo-Iweala has extensive
influence in shaping the direction of Jonathan’s economic team and the
transformation agenda. But that is as far as it goes. In this largely
corrupt administration, she has shouted herself hoarse on the need to
reduce Nigeria’s bourgeoning recurrent expenditure which accounts for a
large chunk of the national budget. She has harped on capital projects
to reduce the worsening unemployment rate which she once said gives her
sleepless nights. But the government she serves has so far not listened
or does not seem to “give a damn”.
In spite of all her efforts, the
economy is still in doldrums; poverty has worsened. This makes it
strange that Okonjo-Iweala remains in a government that is on record to
explicitly encourage corruption by not fighting it. Doesn’t she feel a
sense of frustration that her efforts at bringing the economy back have
so far been a resounding failure? Does the minister not know that
nothing she does will matter in the present political climate that
encourages corruption and waste by public officials? Is she not
concerned by the lack of political will by the President to fight
economic crimes that are inimical to economic development? Okonjo-Iweala
should know that no economic initiative will work in a country where
corruption pervades the fabric of governance.
How can interventions such as hers work
in a corrupt country such as ours where public funds are stolen in a
brazen manner by government officials with impunity? It is for this
reasons that her efforts at reviving the economy will continue to hit a
brick wall. No matter how sound the economic decisions she makes, they
will be subverted somewhere along the line by economic and political
saboteurs in and out of government. It is worse that the President
allows them roam freely and gleefully. There is massive corruption in
the land. The government is losing billions to oil thieves. This
government is bloated which makes its running expensive.
Instructively, no situation best
symbolises Okonjo-Iweala’s dilemma than the worsening unemployment rate.
The figure released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that
unemployment rate has risen to 25 per cent. Historically, from 2006
until 2011, Nigeria’s unemployment rate averaged 14.6 per cent reaching
an all-time high of 23.9 per cent in 2011 and a record low of 5.3 per
cent in 2006. Yet, it was in these years that Okonjo-Iweala was a
minister. What has gone wrong? Let us not be too quick to blame it on
global unemployment rate. The minister must be courageous enough to tell
this government the home truth. I suspect the credibility she has built
is at stake if she stays on to serve this government. How can a first
class global technocrat like her be comfortable in a government that has
refused to fight corruption; where the ruling elite engage in
conspicuous consumption at the expense of the suffering masses? And,
where a very few ruling class appropriate a large chunk of the treasury
in outrageous salaries and allowances? Where is the economic and moral
justification?
It is also an antithesis that she is the
finance minister to a government that encourages indiscriminate
borrowing when she was known to have worked hard to make our country
debt-free in her first coming. The Jonathan government is on a borrowing
binge, ironically, at a time the country is earning huge oil revenue
like never before. Now, the minister is defending this administration’s
N251bn debt-for-infrastructure debts. Something is definitely not right
here. Recently, the Debt Management Office raised the alarm on Nigeria’s
debt profile which it says may hit $25bn (about N3.75 tr) by 2015. Our
domestic debt also stands at more than N6tn, while foreign debt at the
end of 2012 was more than $6.5bn. Even the governor of Central Bank,
Lamido Sanusi, is alarmed. Hear him: “We are borrowing more money today
at a higher interest rate while leaving the heavy debt burden for our
children and grandchildren.”
Is the minister listening? Okonjo-Iweala
should know that Nigerians hold her in high esteem. They also want her
to succeed. But it is doubtful if this is possible with this licentious
government. She must find the courage to resign if her efforts are being
deliberately sabotaged, as they appear to discerning Nigerians. She
should not continue to lend her hard earned name to this charade called
Jonathan’s administration. There is no use rescuing a sinking ship whose
captain lacks the will to steer it in the right direction.
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