Re: As Ngozi returns to Finance ministry     By Mohammed Haruna  Newsdiaryonline Wed July 13,2011

Sir,

After reading your piece today (July 6), Malam, I couldn't help but notice the implausibility in your argument that Jeff Sachs, an American, could love Nigeria more than (Dr. Ngozi) Okonjo-Iweala, a proud Nigerian in abroad, if ever there was one. Let fair be fair: you may not like her but telling me a white American male loves this blasted nation more than the ex-minister is a bit over the top.

Okonjo-Iweala is actually one of 2 World Bank managing directors. Even at that, I wonder how becoming an AfDB chief is 'bigger' than being one d WB's MDs. A third of the WB's budget is by far more than the entire budget of an AfDB suffering non-paying members. This is not to mention its limited global reach and influence when compared with being a top WB executive.

Chima Ejiofor

Sir,

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is just reaping the benefits of over-advertising one-self to a gullible nation.  Perhaps more than any other person in Nigeria in recent memory, Ngozi is profiting from a well-oiled PR campaign that is capable of sending iced cubes to the Eskimos.

She is presented as an Economic expert, possessing the magic wand to turn Nigeria’s finances around.  Yet, there is nothing in her CV to suggest that she has done any significant work in the financial sector nor does she possess any macro-economic management experience.  

The World Bank on its website claimed that Ngozi has been appointed Finance Minister and Co-ordinator of the Nigerian economy. But there is no provision in the Constitution of Nigeria for a Co-ordinator of the economy. However, should the PDP-led government characteristically defy the Constitution and decide to appoint a co-ordinator for the economy, what then will President Jonathan be — a cheer-leader, spectator or what?

Instructively, much of her working life is with the World Bank, primarily a project institution, with a history of project failures across its constituencies.  Yet, her PR handlers would want the rest of us to believe that she is a macro-economic manager.  It would have even been better to promote her as a “project expert”.  Then her “skill” would have been more useful in any of such project ministries like Energy, Works or even Industries.  Certainly, not in the Ministry of Finance. 

Even her portfolio at the World Bank is over-bloated.  Mrs Iweala is only but one of three managing directors, who man each of the divisions in the Bank. Yet, in Nigeria, she is advertised as if she is the head of the institution instead of a managing director. A  South African lady who had held the same post before left it and went back to her country quietly.  We over celebrate what other nations take for granted.

I am still praying for the day we will have the Senate that Nigeria truly deserves; a chamber of diligent senators that will screen candidates in the true sense of the assignment.  Then, Senators will be knowledgeable enough to ask the right questions that will reveal the true character and ability of each nominee.  If it were so, at least one senator would have remembered to ask Mrs Iweala to produce her NYSC certificate; another would have asked why as Finance Minister she was not enthusiastic in campaigning for Nigeria’s candidate for ADB Presidency. (By the way Nigeria lost to Rwanda when she was Finance minister, and not to Burundi, as you said in your column).

Still another senator would have asked her to declare her interest in ADB presidency in 2015 if she had any as has been widely speculated.  That way a potential conflict of interest would have been avoided.  

It is obvious that the exposure Ngozi got during her last tour of duty in Nigeria paved the way for her sudden rise at the World Bank, because until Obasanjo discovered her, she was a relatively junior official at the World Bank. Records indicate that she came to work with Obasanjo twice, first as a Consultant after which she went back and was promoted to Director at the World Bank.  The second time was when Obasanjo appointed her minister and she subsequently returned to Washington to become a managing director. 

Perhaps, after Jonathan, she may become the African Development Bank President. 

Of course, nothing is wrong with people having ambition but it is unacceptable when it becomes a pattern to use national positions to chase foreign posts.  It is instructive here to note that most Africans who come back to serve the continent with eyes on foreign positions are usually quick at mortgaging national interest for personal advancement.

  Ndaliman Magaji

Sir,
It beats me why in a country of the likes of Soludo and Co. we have to remove one of our own in a sensitive and lucrative job as MD of the world Bank to come and do a job some guys at home can do.
I am going to wait, watch and see what Ngozi will do that Aganga, Nenadi and Soludo couldn't or can’t do.

I am yet to see a better FCT minister than El Rufai even though he was trained in Zaria.
We need to look inwards in tackling our numerous problems.

Arc Charles Amankwe

Sir,

For me, I no longer get excited by the idea of bringing officials of the World Bank or International Monetary Fund into the cabinet any President. Did the appointment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in 2003 significantly reduce poverty or add food to the tables of millions of Nigerians? Does she now have the magic wand to do what she didn't do during her previous participation in Obasanjo's government? Will she have the courage to stop profligacy, misplacement of priorities, greed and misappropriation, which have become second nature to our governments?

During his official visit to Nigeria in 2000, former U.S. President Bill Clinton told a joint session of the National Assembly that his country would support a debt relief for Nigeria if it was convinced "the benefits will go to the ordinary Nigerians." The sad truth is that the so-called debt relief didn't eventually change anything in the state of living death the majority poor has been experiencing.

Okonjo-Iweala could mean well for Nigeria but the trouble is that she is coming back to the same polluted political terrain. 

Na'Allah Mohammed Zagga

Bravo, Professor Ruqayya Rufa’i

Nearly seven weeks this week after I first wrote about the seven-month shut down of Kaduna Polytechnic due to the strike by its academic staff,  the authorities in Abuja, the owners of the institution, have at last done the right thing; sack the board and top management.

A panel set up by the Federal Ministry of Education to look into allegations of venality and incompetence against the board and management of the institution established they were well-founded. The ministry accepted the recommendations of the panel on what to do with the alleged culprits. Yet for months nothing happened. Indeed at one point it looked like Government was about to cave in to intense pressure from the powerful benefactors of the alleged culprits and reverse itself.

Happily this has not happened. Instead it seems the first act of Professor Ruqayya Rufa’i in retaining her job as Minister of Education was to put the whole sordid affair behind her. She deserves praise for that.  Ditto her boss, President Goodluck Jonathan, without whose support she could hardly have prevailed over the powerful forces that wanted the truth buried.

Still there is work left to do. Government has appointed Engineer Aminu Abdullahi, a former Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi as Sole Administrator.

Malam Aminu is a fine, diligent, experienced and honest gentleman, if ever there was one. But a sole administrator is incongruous with managing an institution of higher learning such as the Kaduna Polytechnic.  So the sooner the authorities in Abuja set up a proper governing council for  the institution, and, of course, hold up the erstwhile board and management to account for the mess they created, the better for the future of what, in addition to being the largest Polytechnic on the continent, was once one of its best.  

 Last  week's article:

As Ngozi returns to Finance Ministry -By Mohammed Haruna

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