Friday, August 04, 2006
Exit of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: End of Nigerian Economic Reforms
A few hours ago the sudden resignation of Nigeria's ertwhile Finance, and of late, Foreign Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, sent shock ripples to the international and local watchers of the the Nigerian economic miracle of the last three years. Prior to becoming Finance Minister, Okonjo-Iweala was Vice President and Corporate Secretary of the World Bank Group where she had pursued a 21-year career as a development economist. She is married to a surgeon, Dr. Ikemba Iweala.
The economic and political steam of the Obasanjo's government was already turning to cold water at the end of it's first term in 2003, and this was reflected in the ruling Party's massive election rigging in the 2003 polls, this much was confirmed by the Supreme Court, in the few instances of two states (Ogun and Rivers) whose cases were clinically investigated by opposition attorneys.
It took the desperate and bold measures by President Obasanjo to inject a World Bank team led by Okonjo-Iweala, Obi Ezekwesili, Frank Soludo, and a few other technocrats with missionary zeal, into the government with the assignment to rescue the ailing economy from the brink of toital collapse. This they all delivered on target. By the end of June 2006, Nigeria for the first time in recent economic history can proudly be said to have begun to climb out of the woods.
Okonjo-Iweala and her economic team which include ministers and technocrats, launched a number of economic and social reforms aimed at zero-tolerance for corruption; transparency in international and local bidding for government contracts; privatisation of state-owned business through the Bureau of Public Enterprise; and the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, which seeks to bring openness to the oil sector.
In the casual sense, it is tempting to easily allude with a sense of humor that, "now that the sick has regained his health, it is time to despise his Physician". The truth behind her resignation however is that, the Obasanjo regime has become a lame duck, with elections around the corner again in the next 7 months.
Having lost out in the "Third-Term Elongation scheme", designed by some mischievious advisers of the President to perpetuate his rule beyond his constitutional and democratic mandate in May 2007, at the National Assembly, the opponents of that undemocratic manuovres naturally become the victim of Obasdanjo's indignation and vindictiveness.
Ngozi Iweala and her Economic Team were among the frontline opposition to the enlongation scheme because, they argued, it would undermine the fledging economic reforms of the last three years. She as the team leader was seen as a dissident, and was redeployed afterwards from the Finance Ministry to the less-prominent Foreign Affairs Ministry. Even this did not satisfy their thirst for vengeance as the clique saw to her final humiliation by her removal as chairperson of the economic Team for Nigeria on Tuesday this week, while she was still in London with her team, negotiating the remnant of Nigeria's debt with London Club of creditors.
She would be missed for her gallant fight and successful achievements that triggered the miracle of Nigerian Economic reforms. Last week, in an interview with the London Guardian, she recounted: “When I became finance minister they called me Okonjo-Wahala - or Trouble Woman. But I don't care what names they call me. I'm a fighter; I'm very focused on what I'm doing, and relentless in what I want to achieve, almost to a fault. If you get in my way, you get kicked."
Today, her greatest achievement as Finance Minister remains the negotiation, which led to the largest debt relief deal in Africa, and the second largest debt cancellation in the Paris Club's 50-year history. That effort saw Nigeria's $30bn debt to the Paris Club partly written off, saving the country $18bn. As a result of the debt cancellation and an innovative Debt Buy Back Scheme, Nigeria exited the Paris Club in April 2006, thereby bringing the country's external debt burden down from $35 to $5 billion.
Also notable is the Okonjo-Iweala drive and spearheading to get Nigeria's first ever BB- Credit rating in January 2006 from international rating agencies Fitch and Standard & Poors, which placed Nigeria in the league of several emerging market countries like Brazil, Venezuela, Vietnam, Philippines and Turkey.
A 1976 Harvard graduate, the mother of four, who studied rural Nigerian financial markets at doctoral level at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1970s and early '80s, with the expectation that she would one day return to the country, started her career at the World Bank, and accumulated experience in East Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She attained the post of vice president and corporate secretary, the first woman to achieve these positions.
For her doggedness in the nation's finance matters, she has a number of awards in her kitty. These include an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Brown University in 2006, one of America's premier universities, an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Northern Caribbean University, Mandeville Jamaica, Global Finance Minister of the year 2005 award, from Euromoney Magazine and Time Magazine European Heroes 2004 award
The question on the lips of many watchers of this drama is "What becomes the fate of the reforms with the exit of the head-reformer?"
A few hours ago the sudden resignation of Nigeria's ertwhile Finance, and of late, Foreign Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, sent shock ripples to the international and local watchers of the the Nigerian economic miracle of the last three years. Prior to becoming Finance Minister, Okonjo-Iweala was Vice President and Corporate Secretary of the World Bank Group where she had pursued a 21-year career as a development economist. She is married to a surgeon, Dr. Ikemba Iweala.
The economic and political steam of the Obasanjo's government was already turning to cold water at the end of it's first term in 2003, and this was reflected in the ruling Party's massive election rigging in the 2003 polls, this much was confirmed by the Supreme Court, in the few instances of two states (Ogun and Rivers) whose cases were clinically investigated by opposition attorneys.
It took the desperate and bold measures by President Obasanjo to inject a World Bank team led by Okonjo-Iweala, Obi Ezekwesili, Frank Soludo, and a few other technocrats with missionary zeal, into the government with the assignment to rescue the ailing economy from the brink of toital collapse. This they all delivered on target. By the end of June 2006, Nigeria for the first time in recent economic history can proudly be said to have begun to climb out of the woods.
Okonjo-Iweala and her economic team which include ministers and technocrats, launched a number of economic and social reforms aimed at zero-tolerance for corruption; transparency in international and local bidding for government contracts; privatisation of state-owned business through the Bureau of Public Enterprise; and the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, which seeks to bring openness to the oil sector.
In the casual sense, it is tempting to easily allude with a sense of humor that, "now that the sick has regained his health, it is time to despise his Physician". The truth behind her resignation however is that, the Obasanjo regime has become a lame duck, with elections around the corner again in the next 7 months.
Having lost out in the "Third-Term Elongation scheme", designed by some mischievious advisers of the President to perpetuate his rule beyond his constitutional and democratic mandate in May 2007, at the National Assembly, the opponents of that undemocratic manuovres naturally become the victim of Obasdanjo's indignation and vindictiveness.
Ngozi Iweala and her Economic Team were among the frontline opposition to the enlongation scheme because, they argued, it would undermine the fledging economic reforms of the last three years. She as the team leader was seen as a dissident, and was redeployed afterwards from the Finance Ministry to the less-prominent Foreign Affairs Ministry. Even this did not satisfy their thirst for vengeance as the clique saw to her final humiliation by her removal as chairperson of the economic Team for Nigeria on Tuesday this week, while she was still in London with her team, negotiating the remnant of Nigeria's debt with London Club of creditors.
She would be missed for her gallant fight and successful achievements that triggered the miracle of Nigerian Economic reforms. Last week, in an interview with the London Guardian, she recounted: “When I became finance minister they called me Okonjo-Wahala - or Trouble Woman. But I don't care what names they call me. I'm a fighter; I'm very focused on what I'm doing, and relentless in what I want to achieve, almost to a fault. If you get in my way, you get kicked."
Today, her greatest achievement as Finance Minister remains the negotiation, which led to the largest debt relief deal in Africa, and the second largest debt cancellation in the Paris Club's 50-year history. That effort saw Nigeria's $30bn debt to the Paris Club partly written off, saving the country $18bn. As a result of the debt cancellation and an innovative Debt Buy Back Scheme, Nigeria exited the Paris Club in April 2006, thereby bringing the country's external debt burden down from $35 to $5 billion.
Also notable is the Okonjo-Iweala drive and spearheading to get Nigeria's first ever BB- Credit rating in January 2006 from international rating agencies Fitch and Standard & Poors, which placed Nigeria in the league of several emerging market countries like Brazil, Venezuela, Vietnam, Philippines and Turkey.
A 1976 Harvard graduate, the mother of four, who studied rural Nigerian financial markets at doctoral level at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1970s and early '80s, with the expectation that she would one day return to the country, started her career at the World Bank, and accumulated experience in East Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She attained the post of vice president and corporate secretary, the first woman to achieve these positions.
For her doggedness in the nation's finance matters, she has a number of awards in her kitty. These include an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Brown University in 2006, one of America's premier universities, an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Northern Caribbean University, Mandeville Jamaica, Global Finance Minister of the year 2005 award, from Euromoney Magazine and Time Magazine European Heroes 2004 award
The question on the lips of many watchers of this drama is "What becomes the fate of the reforms with the exit of the head-reformer?"
