Okonjo-Iweala: Legacies Louder Than Lies

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Okonjo-Iweala: Legacies Louder Than Lies

By Correspondent

 One of the sad realities of public conversation in Nigeria is the blatant abuse of the public platform by commentators who have no respect for facts and the clear lessons of our recent history. A good example of this kind of commentator is one Mr. Ugoji Egbujo who in a fit of pseudo intellectualism accused former finance minister, Dr Okonjo-Iweala of “cowardice” based on a distorted statement which had been publicly repudiated. His blatant disregard for truth, defective deductions and resort to insults in a recent article titled ”˜Ngozi Okonjo Iweala and the sin of cowardice’ published in the Vanguard and some online newspapers provides sufficient proof that he is a hack writer on a sponsored mission to denigrate the name of the former minister of finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.There are many things wrong with Mr Egbujo’s rambling article. But the outright lies are the most fatal to his ill motivated case. Egbujo claimed in the piece that Okonjo-Iweala signed a memo that opened the vaults of the Central Bank for outright pillaging at the twilight of the 2015 elections. This is a clear and deliberate falsehood. The Minister of Finance is not in charge of the Central Bank so the idea of Okonjo-Iweala or any other Finance Minister signing off on funds being taken out of the CBN doesn’t make sense. For a long time now, the CBN has been an autonomous institution. Incidentally Okonjo-Iweala as Finance Minister under Obasanjo played a key role in the process that led to the Ministry giving up its erstwhile powers over the Central Bank so that the nation could benefit from the international best practice that comes from having a fully independent monetary institution complementing the fiscal side.If Mr. Egbujo were an honest commentator he wouldn’t have resorted to such lies. If he were truly motivated by a patriotic desire to provide illumination to the debate about the country’s low savings – another issue which he approaches with lies and distortions – he would have shown more objectivity. He would have come down harder on the role that some governors played in scuttling the previous government’s plan to save, while pointing out the critical and personal role that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala played. This he did not do. And it was on purpose: it will not help the argument of those paying him to twist facts and malign the former Minister. The truth on savings is that no one in the country has taken more concrete action for savings, fought more battles, suffered more personal assaults from vested interests and spoken the most for and more passionately about saving for the rainy day than Dr. Okonjo-Iweala. These are facts that can be established and verified by a simple google search.It was Okonjo-Iweala who initiated and led efforts to introduce an oil price-based fiscal rule in 2004 such that government expenditure was based on a prudent oil price benchmark. It was an historic and important event which provided a solid structure for the Nigerian economy. Before then benchmark price for oil was based on the highest possible price per barrel, leading to a dysfunctional economy prone to volatility.What the Obasanjo Economic Team which she led did was to ensure that any revenues that accumulated above the reference prices were saved in a special excess crude account. By adopting this rule, government expenditures were de-linked from oil revenue earnings thereby limiting the transmission of external oil price shocks into the domestic economy. This explains the reason for the conservative government budgeting oil prices of $25 per barrel in 2004, $30 per barrel in 2005, and $35 per barrel in 2006, despite higher realized prices of $38.3 and $54.2 and $68.0 in 2004, 2005, and 2006 respectively. Before this time, there was nothing of such. Nigeria gorged on everything that it earned from the sale of oil. No one thought about the need to save for the rainy day until Okonjo-Iweala came along.This arrangement helped Nigeria to save over $22billion from which it drew upon to manage the 2008/2009 global financial crisis. Also, it was on the basis of savings in the ECA that then finance Minister, Segun Aganga to his credit promoted and pushed the law on the establishment of the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF).When she came back under Jonathan, she met about $4billion in the ECA, a figure she quickly ramped up to $9billion before the pressure and political blackmail from the governors and the legislature compelled the government to share the money.Egbujo characteristically ignored these facts, the efforts and determination of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala to deepen the culture of savings and gave her scarce credit for her innovative thinking. This is also telling.Furthermore on the Sovereign Wealth Fund, it was Okonjo-Iweala who under the Jonathan administration ensured its implementation and take off with an initial grant of $1billion. This was in spite of the serious lobby and conspiracy by some governors to frustrate the scheme from taking off. If it were not for her doggedness, the SWF which has been engaging in strategic investments, funding critical projects like the 2ndNiger Bridge and making good profit for the country towards securing the future generation would not have seen the light of day.Interestingly, the new government of President Buhari has seen the merits of the SWF and even went on to commit an additional $1billion to better strengthen its operations. Yet Egbujo would in his narrow, purchased mind choose to join band with people who are consumed with the intent to take the former minister down. Egbujo may be morally bankrupt, but for whatever reason or motivationhis acceptance to be used by those who have waged a tireless but unsuccessful war against Okonjo-Iweala is simply unfortunate. Because truly, someone who pioneered and helped to set up a system that saved the country from the 2008/2009 crisis and whose admonitions if heeded would have saved the country from the current crisis does not in any way deserve to be described in such hostile language by any Nigerian whose head is correct.As a technocrat in governance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala did her bit very well. She was consistent in providing professional advice to government, promoting good polices to impact the people, driving change and reform of institutions and systems towards improving efficiency and transparency.The hollow moral argument that she should have turned down the call to help a country badly in need of strategic direction to satisfy the wishes of vested interests who were only bent on making a political point is clearly baseless.While the call may sound populist, it is not to the interest of the country which has profited greatly from her involvement in spite of the difficult political arena. While Okonjo-Iweala was in government she worked hard and left very strong legacies like the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) which have been wholly accepted by the Buhari administration as good projects.People like Egbujo who believe the answer to the country’s problem is for high achieving people of integrity like Okonjo-Iweala to stay away don’t mean well for this country. There are no perfect governments anywhere, not even in the west. If good people stay away from government, who will fix the country? So, considering the massive savings and impact of the TSA on ensuring effective government spending, the elimination of ghost workers from the federal payroll and savings of billions from using IPPIS, the sanity and transparency in government procurement and contract payment from the use of GIFMIS, the billions in revenues that the SWF is making for the country and several other major projects ”“ especially the railway projects – which she helped to secure  financing for, Okonjo-Iweala’s decision to stay on against all odds and do her bit was very well justified. The most eloquent answer to those who say Okonjo-Iweala should have resigned to make a moral point are the many legacies which, working with colleagues in both the Obasanjo and Jonathan governments, she left behind.Overall, there is no doubt to any discerning Nigerian that Okonjo-Iweala led reforms that greatly impacted most sectors of the Nigerian economy during her stint in government. Anyone who says otherwise is not being truthful to history which cannot be re-written.Mark Chieshe, a public policy analyst based in AbujaEmail: mchieshe@gmail.com

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