Sometime in late April,
2018 I stumbled on a 2page extract of Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's (NOI) book on
twitter and was absolutely stunned by its contents.
Ms. Ngozi, Nigeria's two-time minister of finance and former Managing Director
of the World Bank in that extract had stated that Mr. Donald Duke, a
"progressive" former governor of Cross-River State in South-South
Nigeria, had called and visited her in Washington, trying to convince her not
to accept serving in the newly elected government of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
(GEJ).
I have put the extract
that stunned me here but I immediately went on Amazon to order the book.
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| Page 17 |
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In this book Ms. Ngozi or NOI as her initials spell, tries to inform her
readers about happenings, achievements, corrupt practices and how it was
curtailed; and relationships to other government personalities in and around
government during her tenure from 2011 - 2015 as it relates to her office as
Minister of Finance and Coordination Minister of the Economy.
Some have posited that
she is only trying to launder her image seeing that general elections are
slated for February 2019 and she could be considered by any of the foremost
presidential candidates as a running mate others think she released the book so
as to expose the current president and possibly damage his chances at
re-election. Which is it really? That’s why I read the book and wrote this
review.
Did NOI convince anyone
that she wasn't corrupt and fought against corruption in this book?
NOI goes straight into the book talking about the two events that concern
her personally borne out of how she carried out her job and affected her
ability to do the job.
One was the kidnap of
her mother on December 9, 2012 and the other was getting information that a
meeting was held where it was agreed that she should be maimed so she would
"leave office in a wheel chair". While she captured reader’s
attention with these stories in the very first chapter, I believe she should
have written the book in a certain chronological order as these events happened
almost two years into her tenure.
I see that as trying to
hold the reader’s attention as well as build sentiments around her so one would
know how difficult it was to hold that office and the various threats faced.
Not that any of it was a lie because it surely is very difficult to hold such
an office in a country like Nigeria.
In Chapter two she writes about how she got recommended for the job and several
attempts to discourage her from taking the job. It was such an extract of page
seventeen where she described how Donald Duke called and visited her giving her
"friendly advice" not to take the job that made me buy this book.
Donald Duke's attempt to discourage and his half-witted response to NOI's book
just show the reader that Nigeria's politics is about "self-interest"
and NEVER about the country's development. I have inserted Donald Duke's
response here as well. If Donald Duke's presidential ambition was figuratively
already a teenager in the University, NOI's revelation sent it back to being a
diaper-wearing 3-month old baby. He can as well just forget about it now.
**laughs scornfully**
While it is funny now,
the revelation wasn't funny to me at all when I first read it. I couldn't believe
that Donald Duke was capable of that but I guess that explains the selfishness
of Nigeria's politicians.
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| Duke's Response |
The underlying reason why NOI's mum was kidnapped on that December morning is
the main subject of chapter 3: Confronting the Oil Scammers.
In it she describes how
funds were being looted by certain companies/individuals who submitted subsidy
claims of petroleum products not imported or used in Nigeria but expected the
government to pay. Her team audited the claims and discovered that only about
30% of them were genuine and so they suspended the payments which resulted to
her mother's kidnap and threat to her life. In my opinion it is clear that NOI
was trying to be thorough with her audit and also supported discussing the
"subsidy removal" in town hall meetings around the country before its
eventual removal.
She also revealed here
how GEJ was "convinced/rail-roaded" to announce the removal on
January 1, 2012 by Babangida Aliyu, the governor of Niger state.
She also talked about
the circumstances that led to the CBN governor's outburst that $50billion was
missing from Nigeria's oil accounts.
She painted a picture
that she was already aware of missing monies and auditing/investigating it when
the news broke out that Sanusi Lamido has leaked a letter he sent to the
president concerning the missing funds. How does one confirm that was true? She
sure was been very sleek in those pages.
NOI, in the chapter about Nigeria's twisted budget process, writes about how
the corruption around allocating funds to projects from Ministries, Agencies
and Department to collusion with members of the National Assembly who then
arbitrarily add funds and projects to the budget which they then siphon through
disbursements. This has even become more terrible in the last two years
resulting in the "Budget Padding" scandal as well as causing serious
delays in the passage of budgets. As I type this on May 22nd 2018, Nigeria's
2018 budget hasn't been passed or signed.
Nigeria has gained a reputation the world over for being the base of
"African Princes" who try to scam foreigners out of their hard-earned
cash but in Chapter five NOI describes several scams/proposals that came from
foreign lands and persons abroad trying to hoodwink the government into one
deal or another.
These deals would have
been bad for Nigeria and increased her debt profile if not for her
vigilance/expertise and the democratic nature of GEJ who always sought her
opinion when such proposals are brought to him. This brings to mind the need to
have very intelligent and smart people in the corridors of power or else
ineffectual leaders with sign away the entire country and people will think
they still have a country.
One particular one that
struck me was one where the foreigners came with the chief of Naval Staff and
their unbelievably juicy proposal for a dockyard for all our naval ships. Upon
further scrutiny and interviews it was all hogwash. So I ask myself, was the
Naval Boss in on the scam from the get go or he himself just almost fell for
it. Well the same naval boss was later arrested for misappropriation of funds
with billions found in several of his bank accounts. My people, Ngozi was very 'woke'.
She really helped to mitigate the scams that would have flown past GEJ's desk.
She then went on write about "Ghost Workers, Ghost Pensioners" within
government payables and how she eliminated several during her first outing and
now again during GEJ's government. As I read, all I could think of was that
this "Ghost Worker" industry is probably the largest employer of
labour in Nigeria. She wrote on the various resistances to her reforms and how
she was only able to achieve deploying technology to stem all these due to the
backing she got from the president.
As a female, Ngozi faced the challenge of being disrespected by several top
politicians and presidential aides because of her gender. Some were even more envious
just because she was named as 'Coordinating Minister of the Economy'. She
writes about this and describes verbal assaults on her by the uncouth Osun
state governor, Rauf Aregbesola and the pint-sized Edo state governor, Adams
Oshiomole, who particularly started verbal attacks in the media against her
person just because she refused to give her backing to loans he wanted. These
loans would have further impoverished their states especially with their inability
to pay.
Finally, this excerpt of the last chapter of the book gives a good idea of the
circumstances just before GEJ called and congratulated PMB even before the
results had been completely announced.
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| Page 127 |
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The book is actually an eye opener on the inner workings of high levels of
government and the high-wire politics that come with it. I believe it serves
two purposes for her, which is to launder her image and nail the coffin
of other politician’s ambitions, something I believe would have appalled
her seeing that she knew the characters very well. She convinced me that she is
smart, intelligent, and incorruptible and loves Nigeria. The book also does
nothing to dent PMB's re-election chances as she didn’t knock the sitting
government in anyway. It is quite objective in its language and delivery.
I will score the book a 7 over 10 overall and I recommend that young aspiring
politicians and everyone interested in our National development read it to
learn how to navigate their ways past corrupt bureaucracy and vested interests.
It serves as encouragement as well to those who hold office to stand their
ground against all corrupt odds.
GOD BLESS NIGERIA.
Reviewed by:
Ukpetenan Frank Obehi
