“All illusions by definition insulate people from reality, but, when that reality is harsher than the individual is built to endure, a bit of self-deception is neither harmful nor unnecessary.”
(VANGUAD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 99).
If any of the Ministers in the outgoing government is now actively living in wonderland and releasing more fairy tales than facts about her accomplishments, that Minister must be Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She doubled as the Federal Minister for Finance and the Coordinating Minister on the Economy, CME. In that regard, she was the second most powerful person in the outgoing government. Her appointment for the second time as Finance Minister was received with a great deal of hope and enthusiasm given her exalted status as one of the Managing Directors of the World Bank.
The general feeling was “if anybody can do it, then Ngozi is that person.” Granted there were a few skeptics like this writer who while welcoming her back had written in July 2012, in a two-part series titled WELCOME DR OKONJO-IWEALA, had written as follows:
Only time will tell if you made the right decision to return. It is doubtful if it will be as successful as the first time for reasons too numerous to disclose.
In addition to all these, the Finance Minister came the first time when the international price of crude oil was heading for the roof. Given imminent global recession on account of economic crisis in the US and Europe, she might have arrived just in time for the price of crude to head for the basement.
Your mindset is the same one that has shaped the economies of the United States, Britain and much of the world under the whiplash of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF. The fact that the US and several countries in Western Europe are now on the brink of another major recession, calls into question any economic programme based on their prescriptions. For all we know, you might be operating with textbooks that should be thrown into the dustbin.
It is not surprising that you would start with the contentious issue of fuel subsidy instead of the more difficult but beneficial matter of waste and corruption in government. Let me help you out. You should ask yourself and tell President Jonathan how many Secretaries (Ministers) and Advisers work with Obama. Second, you should try to find out how much Federal and State Ministers, Commissioners and legislators in Nigeria receive as remuneration package compared to Secretaries and Congressmen in the Unites States – a country far richer than our own.
The government you served in 2003 imposed its own hardship while promising greater prosperity. The same political party had been in power since then, and as you return to your desk, you will find that over 70% of Nigerians still live in poverty.
Let me therefore remind Madam of the words of Mr. Dominique Strauss Kahn, the former IMF Chief. “But what we have learnt over time is that unemployment and inequality can undermine the very achievements of the market economy, by sowing the seeds of instability”. If there are two variables defining the Nigerian economy today, they are unemployment and inequality.
The warning to her to shelve fuel subsidy removal, to focus on job creation and wealth redistribution efforts thereby reducing inequity or face failure were ignored. Only a brief and unconvincing attempt at alleviating unemployment was made. It has proved to be inadequate compared to the monumental disasters she is leaving behind.
Only last week, she was reported to have said, through her Special Assistant, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, that:”despite the economic challenges the country is facing, the Jonathan administration [meaning she] is leaving some solid economic legacies for the incoming Buhari government.” She also advised that the infrastructure created by the government she served should not be dismantled.
For sheer self-deception, that piece would be difficult for any failure in government to top. The advice was obviously silly as the graphs below would illustrate. It is advice that should be totally disregarded. Instead of building a sound infrastructure on which her successors can improve she had erected a sand castle on which very little can be added. Below we illustrate with a few graphs the situation in 2012 when Ngozi took over and the situation today. Left out of the graphs are those on Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, which is also declining and the turbulence on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as well as another banking sector crisis round the corner.
Nigerians need to be reminded of the promises she made in 2012, on resumption of office. First, she said that: “I will be the last person and President Jonathan will also be the last person to subscribe to a situation in which we pile up debts.” Second, she assured us by saying: “Let me say this first, the whole thrust of what the President wants for now is the creation of jobs. So, everything we can do in terms of pushing the economy has to be geared at how we can have job growth. (August 17, 2011, at Aso Rock, Abuja). Even given her own and Jonathan’s rather low targets for achievement, she had failed woefully on both counts. When we add the fact that the government met four refineries shut down and is leaving all four still shut down; power supply at under 3,000MW and still under 3,000MW; mass failure of students in schools (including the Nigeria Law School); and growing insecurity, as well as failure to promote non-oil exports, even the most generous professor at Harvard and MIT would grade their former student F.
Unfortunately, leaving a legacy of monumental incompetence will not be Okonjo-Iweala’s only concern. She faces several rounds of probes on account of her management of at least two programmes – Duty Waiver and Sure-P. All of a sudden the news reports regarding the two programmes are pointing to massive scandals which will need to be explained. A third might be the handling of the fuel subsidy scam and AMCON. Increasingly, close observers of the Minister are getting the feeling that she was not only a terrible manager, she must have allowed, deliberately or inadvertently, certain things under her watch as CME. Typical of her, the Minister had been pointing accusing fingers at everybody else but herself. She is wasting her time. Her reputation has been tarnished for ever.
That is no legacy anybody wants to build upon. Her second tour of office had certainly been a disaster for her and for Nigeria.
VANGUARD
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