Why Ngozi?

I never doubted the intellectual capacity of Dr Iweala, I also know that she is a Nigerian and is entitled to becoming whatever in this country. She was here about eight years ago and left just about the end of the administration of General Obasanjo in 2007. While she was here, she put in a […]

I never doubted the intellectual capacity of Dr Iweala, I also know that she is a Nigerian and is entitled to becoming whatever in this country. She was here about eight years ago and left just about the end of the administration of General Obasanjo in 2007.

While she was here, she put in a lot of efforts in managing the nation’s finances especially as they relate to debt and debt cancellation. At the end of the day, the nation’s economy wasn’t any better than she met it because the primary objective of her role in the Finance Ministry was two fold.

One of the reasons of course was that she was concerned about the nature of crisis within the economy, especially the financial sector and the aspiration perhaps to correct the ailments and set the nation on the right track. The second issue which to me was more important to her and her employers was the need to keep the Nigerian economy and the financial sector in tune with the aspirations of the Washington Consensus.

She played the second role very effectively and at the end of the day, the nation was made to celebrate for what Okonjo-Iweala and those of them in that government said was ‘debt relief’. In any case, some of us have always believed that it was nothing more than a smoke screen displaying the failures of both the Nigerian government and the international financial cartels led by the Breton Woods Institute that have been responsible for most of poor and unworkable economic models that brought Nigeria to its knees.

I am worried that the government of Goodluck Jonathan is also falling a victim of this diaspora fallacy which was the greatest undoing of the Obasanjo’s government. I believe that all Dr Okonjo-Iweala will likely do is to re-integrate Nigeria into the whims and caprices of these international financial cartels that have for a very long time caused so much pains and anger to the Nigerian people.

The decision to bring back Ngozi into government and for that purpose to the Ministry of Finance means that there is the decision to return Nigeria into that failed league. There seem to be some form of complex in those who preside over our affairs in this country and in my view, it is counterproductive. As I said earlier on, I do think that a Nigerian, talk less of one with Ngozi’s stature, is entitled and could be appointed into any office in this country.

I am quarrelling over the hype that has been created which seem to suggest that no Nigerian at home can do as much as Ngozi would do in the financial sector. I believe that such people who have spent most of their lives in international service and bureaucracy lack in-depth knowledge of the realities of the national economy and may just be the usual misplacement of priority.

Nigeria is weeping and what we need at this time is internal strategies of assessing our national menace and not the importation of those in Diaspora to compound the problems of the country.

Unless if Ngozi will rise to the occasion and realize that Nigeria’s problems require Nigerian solutions. Those from Washington have not worked and will definitely not work. The problems in the country have their solutions right in here and no external model can do any magic as long as we are ill- prepared to sanitize our approach to issues and life generally.

I wish the Minister of Finance well and do hope that we won’t anytime either soon or in the future find reason to quarrel on the basis of wrong steps. While accepting the reality that we ought to have different views on issues, the bottom-line is that there must be a common understanding on endemic national issues and not too much romance with those who have employed her for most of her life.

….And Jonathan picks Reuben Abati

He delights in insulting the Muslim North for a very long time. His views on Northern Nigeria especially after the presidential election were as pedestrian as similar positions he held in the past. Nobody from amongst us cares about him because he has the right to prove his intellectual incapacity as a cheap irredentist.

Now that President Jonathan out of sheer ill-will chose to appoint Dr. Rueben Abati as his spokesman, we have reason to be concerned but not to worry. In a federal setting that is as volatile as Nigeria is, those who ought to be in national leadership position shouldn’t be cheap separatists.

Those who ought to be upstairs are people that can as much possible bury their hatred for others and try imbibing the spirit of unity in diversity. People who should live above the minimum in terms of their outlook and tolerance or posses high tolerance quotient and not those who preach hate and intolerance and in my view those among other many shortfalls define the character of the man Rueben Abati.

In any case, since the President chose to reward Rueben’s insults on other segments of the population with this plumb job, we wish him well, but also need to assure both the President and Dr. Abati that those who this appointment is meant to insult will bear the brunt. Nigeria is more important than any individual and to those who live by hate and evil propaganda, their stock in trade shall be their waterloo.

No doubt Rueben is a fantastic writer, as to whether he can communicate to the rest of us is what is left to be seen with time. We await how he is going to pass the message across. While wishing Rueben Abati well, I do hope that this appointment will refine him into becoming a more informed and tolerant Nigerian.