Let’s give it to Minister Ngozi & Mr. President

 

BY LAOLU AKANDE

 

It is sure time to say to President Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, good job. And I say that advisedly. The cancellation of 60% of Nigeria’s debt by the Paris Club and the offer of a buy back deal for the balance of 40% is indeed a major breakthrough for the country, let’s face it.

 

There is a way in which we can be critical about the next shoe that drops. For instance it is a legitimate question to ask: How would this debt relief become real for the average Nigerian, whose life has been comprehensively diminished by the burdens of the debt these several years past? But I think just as we do that: raise that very important question, we must find time to actually give the nods to deserving people.

 

I actually want to commend Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for her staying power. I remember that one of my last public commentaries about her was to warn her of the impending danger of remaining on the Obasanjo cabinet. Let us recall that the very first week after she took the job, there was a retreat somewhere in the country for all the new ministers after the 2003 elections. And it was there that sister Ngozi found out that her portfolio as Finance Minister had been suddenly cut short of a critical department-Budget.

 

That was not the agreement she had with the President while her appointment was being negotiated. On realising this breach,  she rightly arranged to make her way back to her influential and top job back in Washington DC as World Bank Vice President. Now, we never know for sure how the disagreement was resolved but we know that some people-including her Dad, a professor himself, prevailed on her to remain. I had warned then that I had it on good authority that Obasanjo had not shred sister Ngozi’s letter of resignation, but merely kept it till a rainy day. But I am sure Obasanjo must now be thanking his stars that he has on his cabinet, a dogged fighter like Dr. Okonjo-Iweala. There are even rumors circulating that the president might push her to run for his office come 2007. Nigeria indeed has one of the most fertile political terrain around!

 

Don’t let us fool around; Okonjo-Iweala’s stature must feature very prominently among the reasons why Nigeria got the debt relief deal. It takes an operative of the International Finance Capital system to get the system to rethink its own internal contradictions. Okonjo-Iweala’s credibility must have meant an assurance for the Paris Club and those who ultimately made the call to help Nigeria out.

 

I remember when she was about to accept this job. Three years ago in New York. Ngozi was the guest of honor of the Nigerian Lawyers Association, NLA, annual dinner. The lawyers were so impressed by a Nigerian who had found her way so high up at the World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. and so gave her the association’s Merit Award. She was there, in her simple now customized attire of “ankara” up and down dress. Her husband was there with her, very simple and graceful people. And Ngozi wowed the audience with her tales of being ready to make a difference. She urged us all to think about making a difference now and not just sit by and watch matters of the nation slip away helplessly. She was so charitable at the event that she even gave me something close to an instant interview. I thought that was the limit, until she took to the floor and danced away to the music at that dinner party!

 

I recall all this to show that this was someone I was really fascinated about for sure. Until the dollar salary matter got out. Not that I thought for once that Iweala did not deserved to be paid anything the president chose, but I was concerned that the procedure adopted was less than transparent. I was also uncomfortable that the money had to be denominated in dollar and paid out of some international fund. I felt Nigeria should be paying and not some international agency or bilateral arrangement. Afterall she is now a Nigerian Minister. But the matter died a seeming natural death, like many things in our country. I still think if the salary matter and the attendant questions can be regularised and resolved it will be good for the system and for decent people like the Iwealas.

 

Meanwhile that cannot blur the fact that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala has scored a major victory for her country. She has made a difference as she promised to do in New York three years ago and I join in celebrating her again. One hopes she can ensure that the break that the nation gets financially can be brought to bear on the average man and woman on the street. I hope she can deliver on her promise to Nigeria’s creditors that the debt-relief will release more money for infrastructural, educational and social developmental progress of Nigerians. I hope she can continue to block all the leaks she has identified. And more than anything, I hope she can always remember that she holds a public trust and by acting in a way that inspire public trust and respect, she might be one of the new lights in a country so besotted by leaders who would lust after being served than actually serving the people.

 

As for President Obasanjo, we must commend him as well for bringing to the cabinet useful hands like Okonjo-Iweala. I know that Obasanjo has found a new legacy refrain! If you know how much he enjoyed the appellation, as the only former military head of state who handed over power to civilians, then you can imagine how much he would cherish the description of being the president to solve the problem of debt-burden. I do not deny Obasanjo his celebration, as a matter of fact, I rejoice with him on this occasion because at least he got something back for all his travels around western capitals. But then, Mr. President, the people are waiting to participate in that joyous satisfaction and happy mood that is now going on in Aso Rock over this debt relief. It is important that some succour is felt by the people who have suffered mostly; otherwise the relief will mean nothing other than an ego trip. Please Mr. President, don’t let that happen!

 

What should happen however is that President Obasanjo should show some spine and release the list of looters which he himself acknowledged the Paris Club handed over to him during the negotiation of the debt-deal. He should expose those Nigerian looters and then prosecute them in an atmosphere of due process, not gangsterism or kangaroo arrangement. If Obasanjo can’t go after looters who are alive, but only vexes against dead ones, how can he expect anyone to take him serious for too long?

 

We know former IG Tafa Balogun was a victim of his own undoing-that man has a lot of explaining to do for all those money he allegedly stole. But we also know that Broda Tafa’s fate was compelled by Paris club negotiators who asked for ‘blood.’ Innocent people have nothing to worry about, as James Hadley Chase said, only the guilty are afraid. But is that why Obasanjo himself is afraid to go the whole hog and ram all those looters in? Mr. President, what say you?