Okonjo-Iweala’s big reminiscence day in London

Two weeks ago, on 16 May, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s two-time finance minister, who was also foreign minister, came to the London School of Economics. Her mission was to talk about her latest book, “Fighting Corruption is Dangerous”, an account of her personal travails as the powerful but controversial finance minister under the Goodluck Jonathan administration. It was an evening full of reminiscences. If Okonjo-Iweala is without honour in her native country, as trenchant criticisms of her in Nigeria would suggest, she is certainly a big global figure, celebrated abroad. The presence of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife, Sarah, at the event attests to this.

The event was hosted by the International Growth Centre, a joint LSE-Oxford University policy research centre, and the Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa, both with which I have academic affiliations. Introducing Dr Okonjo-Iweala, Professor Jonathan Leape, executive director of the IGC, described her as “an extraordinary individual”, and hailed her “personal and political courage”, her determination, amid personal attacks, to undertake “long-term institutional reforms” and “root out corruption” in Nigeria.

Many Nigerians would, of course, balk at those descriptions of Dr Okonjo-Iweala, given her very controversial and broadly negative public image in Nigeria, particularly during her second time as finance minister when she became Nigeria’s de facto prime minister under a weak and rudderless president. But to the international community, her real constituency, Okonjo-Iweala, who is currently chair of the board of GAVI, the global health body, is a hallowed figure. And she was feted as such at the London event.

The talk took the form of a Socratic dialogue, a conversation, rather than a lecture, with Dr Okonjo-Iweala, who was accompanied by her husband, Ikemba Iweala, fielding questions. Anchoring the conversation was the Director of the LSE, Dame Minouche Shafik, who has similar career trajectory as Dr Okonjo-Iweala. Dame Minouche was vice president of the World Bank, permanent secretary of the UK Department for International Development, deputy managing director of the IMF and deputy governor of the Bank of England before she became the Director of LSE last year!

Indeed, Dame Minouche has known Dr Okonjo-Iweala for more than 20 years, since they were both at the World Bank. Unsurprisingly, she started with an anecdote. “I still remember the day that Ngozi told me she was going to leave the relatively comfortable life of the World Bank to be finance minister of Nigeria”, the LSE Director recalled. “I just looked at her and said, ‘Ngozi, that’s one of the hardest jobs in the world’”. She added: “and then she did it twice!”. This was, she posited, “a testimony to her courage and determination”.

But Dr Okonjo-Iweala said she was driven by a commitment to public service, an ethos inculcated in her by her father, Professor Chukwuka Okonjo, himself a renowned economist. She recalled how, as a teenager, her father stopped her from going on holiday abroad with her friends because the cost of the ticket would have paid for the secondary education of four or five students! “That’s the home I came from”, she said. “But at home, people have lost that; they’ve lost faith. They don’t believe anyone can serve their country, and it’s sad”, she lamented. “So I went back to show young people that there are people who love their country, who want to serve”. That’s a gushing protestation of patriotism and altruism, but none should gainsay it.

From personal motivation, the discussion then moved to policy issues. What are the root causes of corruption in Nigeria? She was asked. She said there were many but would focus on two. First is weak institutions, particularly weak financial systems and processes, such as the “cash-based system” that Nigeria ran until she helped build a government-integrated financial management system.  Second is Nigeria’s costly presidential system and its impact on elections. The “little dirty secret”, she said, is that “part of the money for the treasury are diverted to finance political campaigns”. That’s an open secret, I would say, but coming from the two-time finance minister, it’s revelatory. Surely, alarm bells must start to ring as the National Assembly approves a pre-election 2018 budget likely to be about N10 trillion! With Nigeria’s lax campaign finance law, even a Saint Buhari won’t resist the temptation to use public money to secure electoral advantage!

Still fielding questions, Dr Okonjo-Iweala responded to one about why some countries, such as China, develop with corruption. It’s better to develop without corruption, she cautioned, but said there are many reasons why countries develop faster than others. She gave two. First, countries that have more cohesion, a social contract and common vision for the future are likely to do better. Second, countries where there is policy consistency will perform better than those with policy inconsistency. She regretted that Nigeria lacks cohesion and a common purpose, and, of course, policy consistency.

Then came a trick question: Of the two presidents, Obasanjo and Jonathan, under whom she served, who fought corruption more and who was more relaxed about it? Okonjo-Iweala saw the booby trap and avoided it. “I am not going to enter into a comparison of presidents”, she said, adding that both leaders had very different styles and managed issues vastly differently. But in an apparent dig at President Jonathan, she said his administration didn’t get the communications right. “You need to send the right signals from the top, you need to make it clear to people what you stand for, and, finally, you need to execute”.

At this point, the conversation shifted back to the personal. How did she sustain the personal attacks? She was asked. She answered, sounding downbeat, “It was hard”. Her mother was kidnapped, and she was asked to resign. “But when I saw that there was such an intense desire for me to resign”, she said, “I decided that I must be doing the right thing”. He continued: “For those who want to know why I did not resign: I could have”, adding: “At the end of the day, we saved about $9 billion”! Put counterfactually, had she not stayed put, Nigeria would have lost a whopping $9 billion!

So, then, what makes an effective finance minister? She listed four qualities: First, technical skills – knowing what policy levers can move an economy. Second, extraordinarily thick skin. Third, political skills, but admitted: “I wasn’t very good at that”. And fourth, trust and respect with the boss. She said she enjoyed this as she was “never stopped” at the top from doing anything, “but things were not going right elsewhere”.

For me, her admission of lack of political skills resonated strongly. President Obasanjo said in an interview in 2015: “Ngozi’s strong point is technical expertise. But she needs to be led and supervised”. In other words, she lacks political competence. Dr Okonjo-Iweala is an outstanding technocrat, but she is politically naïve. She lacks the political savviness that a technocrat needs to operate successfully in a political environment. What’s more, she doesn’t understand what’s at the heart of Nigeria’s problems. She sees the answers to Nigeria’s problems purely through the prisms of economic policy and economic institutions rather than politics. For instance, despite her views about the unsuitability of the presidential system for Nigeria and the lack of unity and cohesion in the country, she was somewhat dismissive of a question about Nigeria’s flawed political structure. Yet, the problems she identified in her books can only seriously be addressed through restructuring, which, by the way, is not about breaking up Nigeria, but about giving it a new political settlement and a fit-for-purpose politico-governance structure.

Secondly, I detected some hubris. She spoke like a flawless sage, with little capacity for self-criticism. Interestingly, she answered every question posed except one from a lady who asked: “I am curious about what mistakes you felt you made and what you would do better”. Her failure to answer the question was probably an oversight. But it’s the kind of question no leader must duck because embedded in the answer is the humility that must go with greatness.

That said, Dr Okonjo-Iweala is rightly celebrated. As Gordon Brown said powerfully at the event, “You are talking about a finance minister, but more than that someone who’s got something to say about the future of the world and the future of Africa”. He’s right. Absolutely!

Olu Fasan

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