Is Okonjo-Iweala the de facto prime minister?
One understands that it was a herculean task to convince her, upon which she laid out some conditionalities; among which she set out the irreducible minimums to avoid suffering the humiliation she suffered in the hands of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s quasi-dictatorship. Before going into the details of the or rationale of the coronation, let us […]
One understands that it was a herculean task to convince her, upon which she laid out some conditionalities; among which she set out the irreducible minimums to avoid suffering the humiliation she suffered in the hands of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s quasi-dictatorship.
Before going into the details of the or rationale of the coronation, let us first agree that she is one of the few big fishes in President Jonathan’s cabinet. She is highly respected for her no nonsense attitude, Spartan approach and does not take prisoners. Hear her, ‘when I first became Finance Minister, they called me Okonjo-Wahala, or trouble woman. It means I gave them hell. But I don’t care what names they call me. I am a fighter, I am very focused on what I am doing and relentless in what I want to achieve. If you get on my way, you get kicked.’
The truth is that she is now the de facto Prime Minister in the sense that the duties lined out for her as the coordinator of the Economic Team and Mr President’s recent Riot Act to other ministers to either cooperate with her or shape out, is a confirmation of her authority.
Secondly, it is pertinent to state, without ambiguity, that not minding the truism that we are practising presidential system of government, the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which vests executive powers on the president under Section 5, also allows him the discretion to delegate powers to whomsoever he deems fit.
Thirdly, no one can expect all her colleagues to be happy with her, as the favourite or the anointed one, for newspaper reports are awash with comments from ministers. As usual, those who spoke, spoke in anonymity like, ‘we know Okonjo-Iweala is the coordinating minister, her ministry is the clearing house; but we do not expect her to interfere in the affairs of our ministries in her mission to cut down government spending,’ ’we all know that the economy is in bad shape and there is need for all members of the Federal Executive Council to work together in order to deliver dividends of democracy to our people. Yes, in doing that, we should all be treated with respect. We are all important in this national assignment. It is wrong to say one is more important than the other; after all, where was she when we were campaigning? She should not be made our boss.’
On the intendment and rationale of her appointment, not many faulted her appointment. Indeed, many Nigerians and friends of Nigeria felt a sigh of relief; giving the Food is Ready syndrome, which dominated public governance in the last decade.
To many, her appointment is the only important decision President Jonathan took since his assumption of duty; for without being neither immodest nor antagonistic, he has been more transactional, status quo defender and figurehead kind of person. Therefore, to demonstrate seriousness to transform the country, he appointed an agent of change, a catalyst and not a defender of the status quo.
In his words, President Jonathan said, ‘she is coming back to a familiar background, having served as minister during former President Obasanjo’s regime. I am so proud that she accepted to come back and serve because considering the position she was holding at the foremost World Bank, it is difficult for her to return and still agree to be paid naira and not dollar-denominated salary’.
She is a beacon of hope and a star of prudence in our dear country where according to late Alhaji Shehu Musa, the Makama Nupe, former Secretary to Government of the Federation, ‘officials are not only corrupt, but corruption is official’. She has to confront the monster called ‘corruption’, to fight it head on. As she noted, ‘we need to look at our domestic borrowing. We need to be prudent. We have to start reducing our borrowing. External debt is extremely low. We need to be cautious about domestic debt.’
The prevailing high inflation, capital flight, the closure of industries and decayed infrastructure will come top on her agenda, if the gross unemployment, exodus of our youths is to be halted, jobs created and decayed infrastructure fixed.
In sum, Dr Okonjo-Iweala has been entrusted the mandate to drive the much talked about transformation agenda of President Jonathan. Her team is expected to shape the immediate and mid-term economic development of Nigeria; by halting the huge drain in public expenditure, where over 70% of the budget is allocated to recurrent expenditure, the extravaganza of public officers in the midst of social imbalance and reviving the magic wand she used in negotiating Nigeria out of the debt trap in 2006.
Even cynics agree that the intendments and rationale of her appointment is noble, especially when in tandem with another big fish in the cabinet, Professor Barth Nnaji; they are to lead the charge for stable power supply and she is to chair the Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, a board the president charged to, ‘act as a catalyst for new investment into the power generation market. The Bulk Trader is equally expected to stabilize the market for those already in the business, especially at this time when we have embarked on the privatization of successor distribution companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria {PHCN}’.
However, the few posers, which might subvert the good intendment of both Mr President and the Hon Minister cannot be swept under the carpet.
One of the impediments is the truism that Dr Okonjo-Iweala belongs to the Washington School, an economic maxim which hinges its thesis on the private sector as the driver of economic growth. The school has many epitaphs, among which is Chicago School, they are founded on the age long Adam Smith school, with a common plank that society has to benefit from the invisible hand of the individual. They maintain that state owned enterprises fail because the public sector cannot muster the will to get the enterprise to survive like the private sector.
Recent study has shown that the Washington School failed in the Third World countries, after its introduction in the 1980s and 1990s as Structural Adjustment Programme {SAP}; not because there are no fine points, but because in the case of a country like Nigeria, the so called captains of industry have no industries. They are merely middle men and traders, marketing goods from the industrialised world.
The expected Foreign Direct Investment failed to arrive, after the state was told that it has no business in business; hence the subsidies even on agricultural implements and import-export were withdrawn.
If Dr Okonjo-Iweala fails to modify her views on the need for the Nigerian government to invest its unprecedented oil revenue on basic infrastructure like modern refineries, railways, power and social services; and resort to withdrawal of subsidies, we might as well forget it, for the so called Foreign Direct Investment might not come the way which will benefit the largest number of our people.
Otherwise, what is the wisdom in using $12.4bn to pay for loan in 2006, than using it to invest in power or railways, refineries and come out of poor electricity supply and remain indebted, instead of paying debt and remain in darkness?
Finally, there is likely to be a rift in the near future between Dr Okonjo-Iweala and the Food is Ready politicians, especially the Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} hawks in both the National Assembly and outside, bedfellows of Mr President who have governed the country for the past decade. President Jonathan will be forced to choose between the hawks and the Prime Minister, as we approach the elections.
The Prime Minister we know, will definitely remove subsidies, clean the pork in the budget, and trim the excess fat which gives the recurrent budget over 70% against the current expenditure.
We wait as the game plays out; for this will be the litmus test on whether President Jonathan truly wants to transform our dear country or is playing politics and sloganeering with Transformation.
Osita Okechukwu, Obodo Amankwo –Eke, Enugu State