In a national broadcast to mark the forgiveness of Nigeria’s debt by the Paris Club in 2005, former President Olusegun Obasanjo made some remarks, which I have since held on to. In closing the broadcast, he said: “How about the future? We must learn from the past. We must all show collective responsibility to prevent a return to the past. We must all commit ourselves to protecting, rather than squandering the future of our children. We must all agree not to remove the solid blocks on which our nation stands by accumulating debts that we cannot pay. May God never let us go through this painful path again’’.
The statement ended with a prayer, which I know that many of us would have said amen to. Even with that amen, are we sure that our country is not reeling under another debt overhang today? I will draw heavily from the text of Obasanjo’s broadcast in writing this article. It is over 11 years since the Obasanjo administration got us the $18 billion debt relief. Obasanjo left office in 2007 and since his exit, we have had two other administrations – the late Yar’Adua’s and the Jonathan’s. The late President Umoru Yar’Adua, as we all know did not have the time to attend to affairs of state because of his health, so he may not have gone on a borrowing spree that will harm the country.
But the same cannot be said of his successor, former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was in office for almost six years before his loss in the last election to President Muhammadu Buhari. A key figure in the Obasanjo and Jonathan administrations was Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the renowned economist, who left the World Bank to serve her country. Okonjo-Iweala played a key role in the negotiations that led to the writing off of our debt. And Obasanjo acknowledged her role in his broadcast by describing her as ‘’a woman of indomitable character and courage’’.
If I know Obasanjo well, he will not think twice today before withdrawing that accolade. Why? It is the same Okonjo-Iweala that should have led the campaign for savings in the wake of the debt relief in which she played a central role that did otherwise under Jonathan. In the opening of the June 30, 2005 broadcast, Obasanjo enjoined us to savour the cheery news of the debt forgiveness ‘’and draw bitter lessons from the profligacy of the past’’. Did Okonjo-Iweala, the architect of the debt relief, draw such lessons? The answer is no. Speaking on ‘’Inequality, growth and resilience’’ at the George Washington University in the United States (US) last Thursday, she said our country is in dire straits today because her boss, Jonathan, lacked the political will to save!
Under Obasanjo, she said the nation saved $22 billion, which came in handy during the 2008/2009 global meltdown. Obasanjo, she said, was able to save because he had the political will to do so. ‘’This time around, and this is key now, you need not only to have the instrument but you need the political will. In my second time as finance minister, from 2011 to 2015, we had the instrument, we had the means, we had done it before, but zero political will. So, we were not able to save when we should have. That is why you find that Nigeria is now in the situation it is in, along with so many other countries”, Okonjo-Iweala said.
In one word, Jonathan failed the nation when we needed his leadership most. It is not that the money was not there; the money was there because oil was selling like hot cake then – between $120 and $140 per barrel – and there were no problems whatsoever with production. It was Okonjo-Iweala’s duty to ensure that we saved for the rainy day because life goes up and down like a yo-yo. The oil that was selling for $140 per barrel when she was in government is today hovering between $38 and $40 per barrel. If I were Okonjo-Iweala, I will cover my face in shame. She should not be seen or heard talking at all because it was her duty to get the then president to save for the rainy day.
She was a super-minister – the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy – all roled into one. What was she coordinating if she could not get Jonathan to do what was expected of him? To reduce what happened then to Jonathan’s lack of political will shows that she did not appreciate the enormity of her responsibility as a super-minister. The issue is Okonjo-Iweala should admit that she failed as finance minister. Their administration, as she noted in her US lecture, put us in the mess we are in today because of its ineptitude. She worsened her case by trying to explain it away later that governors were the problem. Were the governors our president or Jonathan? Why didn’t governors stop Obasanjo from saving when he was president?
I return to the Obasanjo broadcast again because what Okonjo-Iweala did relates to what he warned the nation against 11 years ago. ‘’We can identify bad governance, abuse of office and power, criminal corruption, mismanagement and waste, misplaced priorities, fiscal indiscipline, weak control…These all took place in this country, before our very eyes, and at times in active complicity with many of us…We often forget that stolen and wasted funds were money meant for growth and development especially education, health, roads, water, electricity and other social services’’.
Okonjo-Iweala saw evil being perpetrated against her country and she kept quiet instead of raising an alarm. Of what benefit is her statement today that we could not save for the rainy day because of our former president’s lack of political will? Her statement cannot remedy the situation; so she should keep what she knows to herself and not add to our problems. She and her cohort have done their worse. I just hope that we will not be infected by the Okonjo-Iweala disease of keeping quiet when we should speak out when things are going wrong.
As Obasanjo said in his broadcast: “We pray to God that we get beyond this debilitation and develop a collective conscience that is anchored on transparency, accountability, probity, value-for-money and due process’’. For Nigeria, may it yet be morning on creation day.
NATION
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These accusations about Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, are they factual? Let’s move Nigeria forward. I think it is those people that have something to hide that suddenly start putting blames on others. I think it is childish. It is not what we should be doing at a time as this.
It is my candid stand that it remains insulting to the person Dr. Okonjo-Iweala to state that, “I just hope that we will not be infected by the Okonjo-Iweala disease of keeping quiet when we should speak out when things are going wrong.” The author of the article ought to be investigated and examined mentally.
Let us take a short course in history. In January, 2013, the ECA had over $10 billion in it. Then, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, led Nigerian Governors, under the umbrella of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and asked the then, President Goodluck Jonathan to share the money to the states. Okonjo-Iweala, it was, who insisted that Nigeria should save the money for the rainy day!
This writer is making an unreasonable comment. Okonjo Iweala is not the president so why blame her for the failures of the administration led by the president? She never kept quiet when she feels things are going wrong, she has always warned the people with countless press statement. Everyone is just looking for someone to blame and Okonjo Iweala seem to be the easiest person they can blame. But let us remember that we voted for Jonathan to be the president (then) not Okonjo Iweala, so if you want to blame someone, blame yourself or the president!
As a technocrat and an experienced economist with many years of experience, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala knew the implication of not being financially prudent, and she warned against this practice at every point in time. Asides from Jonathan’s cabinet, the governors whom she felt were knowledgeable enough to see trouble looming ahead chose to frustrate her, as they posed as greater threat to Okonjo-Iweala. Out of greed, they used every means they knew to fight her. She was accused of having hidden agenda and deliberately withholding their revenue. Since she left office, how many of the so called governors have been paying salaries regularly?
The former coordinating minister of the economy I know was never a weak or irresponsible leader. In fact, her doggedness and resilience made her unpopular among other ministers in Jonathan’s cabinet. Okonjo-Iweala was never scared of anything or anyone, neither was she the type to hide behind a failed system or use people and circumstances as excuses. Having done and served in all sincerity and transparency, you expect her to admit failure; to what exactly?
Yes, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was a fantastic coordinating minister of the economy, whose contributions and interventions has saved us from total bankruptcy as a nation. What this writer failed to realise and put into perspective is that Okonjo-Iweala diligently served in the capacity for which she was hired to serve. Moreover, she was a financial advisor not a rebel that will force Jonathan to act against his will.
Madam Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala need not cover her face in shame for a problem or situation she did not bring upon her beloved nation; Nigeria. At no point did Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala keep quiet about the state of our economy, she screemed them loud on top of her voice; and for everyone who cared to listen, she shared her fears about the government’s financial indiscipline.