OKONJO-IWEALA: FACTS AND FICTION 21082006

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala was seconded from the World Bank to the Federal Civil Service as a Consultant and was later appointed as the first ever female Finance Minister in Nigeria.  Indeed, the World Bank in recognition of the plight of the Nigerian economy and the abject poverty of millions of ordinary Nigerians took on the responsibility to continue to fund their surrogate’s emoluments for the period she served at the highest level of our country’s economic and financial management.  This gesture was a recognition of the fact that the highest paid Nigeria civil servant received a total remuneration package of less than N3m per annum and it would be inexplicable to expect Dr. Iweala to make the extreme sacrifice of leaving behind a salary package in excess of N20m abroad to serve in a country widely characterized by insecurity, corruption and failure in every facet of social infrastructure, even if that country was her fatherland!

Indeed, Dr. Iweala was the latest in such IMF secondments, which include scholars such as Dr. Chu Okogwu and Dr. Idika Kalu, whose tenures as Finance Minister witnessed the decimation of the nation’s middleclass and the rapid pauperization of the Nigerian masses with the IMF inspired Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP.  It was never clear if the World Bank also picked up the tab for these other secondments.  Nonetheless, their fine service to their principals turned Nigeria into a dumping ground for rejects and used goods and equipment from Europe and America in place of the latest pristine models and quality goods and services, which stronger naira value earlier made possible.  

In the absence of any successful African economy, which had been positively transformed by close IMF and World Bank collaboration, some critical observers did not expect any direct salutary benefits from Dr. Iweala’s much acclaimed appointment in 2003 and such observers held the opinion that Nigerians were in for another round of severe pounding!

Well, the amiable and charming Dr. Iweala has come and gone, and Nigerians are now rated amongst the world’s poorest; indeed, a recent collaborative report by the influential Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal ranked Nigeria’s economic growth at the lowly position of 146 out of the 157 countries listed.  In Sub-Sahara Africa, inspite of our bountiful human, mineral and agricultural endowments and a year-on-year series of best ever export earnings since 2003 the report rated Nigeria above only one country – Zimbabwe and further indicted Nigeria as one of the most repressed economies worldwide!

The above abysmal result must be discomforting for well meaning Nigerians, who may rightly wonder why the economic reforms and the sprightly presentations of economic prospects and growth projections by the nation’s economic team, headed by Dr. Iweala, have not made much difference to the lives of most Nigerians till date.

Inspite of the acclaimed connections of Dr. Iweala with decision makers in the World Bank, and the apparent dynamism of the fine lady, Nigeria was only granted a 60% debt relief!  On the other hand, countries such as Ghana and Botswana who did not field high powered IMF officials in their economic team, nor spent over $10m for their lawmakers on a 10 days debt relief jamboree across Europe and America got 100% debt write off!  Never mind that this was inspite of the general recognition that Nigeria had paid twice the amount borrowed initially and that most of the debt could not be verified, and even worse still, most of the stolen loot found safe haven in bank accounts in the Paris Club member countries!

Interestingly, however, media reports on the ex Finance Minister’s resignation have scored her performance in office as very good, and a blessing to her countrymen and women!  This observation is obviously totally in contrast with the above report published by the Wall Street Journal, which surprisingly relied on data supplied by the affected countries to the World Bank!  (The Guardian 31/07/06, pg 1).  So, who is misinforming who, we may ask!

Well, when you separate the facts from the verbiage of encomiums in the Nigeria media, we can distinguish three main attributes of Dr. Iweala’s stint in government; these are the advocacy and promotion of the “imperatives of fiscal responsibility, transparency and accountability as pillars of the government process”.  Secondly, the BB rating by Fitch indicating Nigeria as demonstrating good business–consumer relations; but certainly the most touted success of Dr. Iweala is the supposed debt relief of the Paris Club.  Indeed, the Paris Club who are covertly senior members of the World Bank and IMF have since collected their booty of $12.4bn and have also imposed conditionalities, which pose serious threats to our economic development and the emancipation of our people from the clutches of poverty, while creating an enabling environment for the continuing exploitation of our people from abroad.

The truth, of course, about debt relief is that international creditors had been under severe pressures from their enlightened citizens, including associations such a the octopus Jubilee Debt Campaign, which had pressed for a 100% debt write off for poor countries all over the world, who would otherwise have no chance to remove their citizens from poverty.  Indeed, our expensive and frivolous debt relief campaign and our inability to polish our negotiation skills and our resort to open international begging may have done us more harm than good!

Well, as for the media’s adulation of Dr. Iweala’s commitment to accountability and transparency, the reality on the ground is apparently vastly different.  The admission of the ex Minister, inspite of her transparency posturing to have been part of an undercover arrangement to make unauthorized withdrawals from the federation account in violation of Section 80(3) of the Constitution dims any claim she could lay to transparency or accountability!  (See Daily Independent 9/6/06 – pg 1).  In addition, the unsavoury controversy on commissions paid on the debt relief deal may also have taken additional shine from our fair lady’s armour.  On the issue of reduction in the level of corruption in public service, again the reality seems different, as senior members of the cabinet, including the new Minister for Finance, Nenadi Usman, the FCT Minister, and the EFCC D.G. continue to lament the still unacceptably high levels of corruption in public service, the due process mechanism not withstanding.  The persistent variances of collected revenue figures by the different arms of government, viz- the NNPC, the Auditor General, the FIIRS and the CBN do not support a transparent or well-structured federal accounting system.

So, if we discount the media glitz, it becomes apparent that Dr. Iweala, giving her touted credentials, should have recorded a better performance; and her inability to bring commercial lending rates to the real sector to below 10% to support business and the failure to improve the real value of the naira so that our impoverished salaries would command more value may not endear her to over 120m Nigerians, whose take-home-pay can only suffice to take them to and from their workplaces.  The failure to transform the life of the common man with our increasing foreign reserves cannot support media reports of exceptional performance.