A BLESSING SO RARE -----The spectacular journey of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala---

Brace up Nigeria! Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, star candidate for the presidency of the World Bank may not win that coveted seat. It’s an election year in the US and the significance of any “loss of face” in the defeat of their preferred nominee cannot be lost on President Obama and the Democratic Party. The opposition will make a meal of the implied diminishing of American influence and prestige as proof of Obama’s incompetence and misrule.
Okonjo-Iweala’s thrilling challenge to the US and Europe “for a level playing field where candidates can be evaluated on their own merits,” resonated deeply among liberals and progressives in the international financial community. However, the reality of the situation is that the US and Europe cannot surrender, on grounds of morality alone, their treasured privilege to call the shots on who runs the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The feverish search by the US for a most internationally appealing nominee suggests that the Obama administration was not unaware of the requirement for change.
Never also have more candidates been suggested and mentioned, including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Indra Nooyi, the head of PepsiCo. The gender show looked too silly and contrived. Thereafter, a few development experts from within and outside the World Bank were brought into the picture. But in choosing Jim Yong Kim, the Korean-American health expert who had made his mark in the world wide battle against the HIV scourge, the US presented to the world the compassionate face of the western capitalist ethos that gave birth to the World Bank at the end of World War II. Okonjo-Iweala had an answer for that and without impugning the credentials of the US nominee maintained that, she does not have a learning curve to undergo at the Bank. “I know how the institution works and I know what needs to be done to make it work better and faster for developing countries," she said to Reuters, the news agency. "I know what its strengths are, its weaknesses, and importantly I know what policymakers need. I’ve actually done it."
It remains to be seen if the US and its allies will be swayed by that or resolutely keep faith with the hardball realities of international power plays. Still, her determined effort to prove her mettle made an uncommon statement about her commitment to a long sought, much advertised, but hardly protected new world economic order. Emerging economies must take a leading role in the global financial institutions, she has argued. "The balance of power in the world has shifted and emerging market countries are contributing more to global growth - more than 50 per cent - and they need to be given a voice in running things. If not, they will lose interest." she told Reuters. If this statement sounds like a subtle threat backed by the Chinese, South African and Nigerian support for her candidacy, then it would be naïve to imagine that US and allied interests are applauding her wit and common sense. Yet, the tough talking Nigerian minister of finance betrayed an impolitic streak of idealism with this dream, "My biggest hope is that this will be a fair contest." When last did the US and the members of the Security Council play by the Queensberry rules?
Back home are varied interests who consider that the brewing controversy over the World Bank job is an unnecessary diversion from the important tasks of monitoring, restructuring and transforming the Nigerian economy for optimum performance. They see in her adroit posturing, a self-seeking intention to attain the pinnacle of the World Bank by the ladder of her repeated engagements at the Ministry of Finance in Abuja. It’s hard to justify their claim, though her credentials for the position include the “hands on experience of managing one of Africa’s largest economies.”
Ironically, it is on this track alone that many of her fellow Nigerians consider her ‘unfit’ for the job. Like many influential people Ngozi Okonjo-Iwuala has her admirers and her detractors. It’s a measure of her astounding ‘strength’ that the push and pull of their various comments do not obscure that shining example of her spectacular journey into the hearts of her countrymen and women.
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She was born in June 1954 to a rather well-known Professor Chukuka Okonjo. Nothing is known, officially, of any middle name. She is just Ngozi, the Igbo word for ‘Blessing’ which exemplified her quick progress through school till graduation from Harvard University in 1977, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where, as a graduate assistant she researched housing issues in developing countries, studied regional economic theories and policies alongside economic planning in developing economies, worked for the World Bank as research assistant on project evaluation of low cost housing in Jamaica, instructed first year graduate students in the principles of economics, consulted for the UN/NGO Forum on the Conference on Women and Development in Copenhagen, organised workshops and conferences on Women and Rural Development in the Third World, whilst netting her Ph.D. in regional economic development from MIT in 1981.
Ngozi Okonjo joined the World Bank via a Young Professionals Programme in 1982 and started off on the West African beat as resident economist cum loans officer handling macro-economic issues and urban sector programmes in Cameroun. There is no official evidence that she did her compulsory youth service scheme and no one has raised the issue in her twin appearances before the Senate as presidential nominee for ministerial appointments. Whilst her native country quaked from the oil glut of 1982, Dr Okonjo was away to East Africa, where at the Bank’s Agricultural Operation’s Division, she oversaw related projects in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
From 1983 onwards, as economist, project economist and later senior economist, she traversed the South Central and Indian Ocean Department, the Africa Region and the East Asia and Pacific Region on a wide spectrum of assignments in Thailand, DR Congo and Rwanda. By 1990, she had risen to senior economist and special assistant to the Vice President Operations. Working on operational and policy matters affecting the Bank, she travelled widely with her boss and gained acquaintance with leaders and policy makers around the globe.
In time, her responsibilities grew appreciably and she participated in the 1992 multilateral Middle East (Oslo) Peace Talks and played a role in the development of the Arid Lands Management Initiative of the talks. As chief of agricultural operations for the Middle East and North Africa Region, she travelled often to the Middle East and helped develop sectorial programmes for country lending initiatives and technical assistance to the countries in the region. She managed work programmes in agriculture and natural resources for Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran and the West Bank Gaza. Between 1994 and 1996, while Nigeria burned from the turmoil of botched elections and the crisis of military intervention in politics, our fast rising countrywoman had become the chief of country operations in the West Central Country Department of the Africa Region. She managed World Bank country strategies and adjustment programmes for Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Togo.
Back in Washington by ‘96 as director of institutional change and strategy, the broad tasks of “facilitating, integrating and coordinating the Bank’s institutional change programme fell on her plump shoulders. Still, by the following year, the Bank proved to be a world tour organiser and as country director for East Asia and Mongolia in the East Asia Region, Ngozi Okonj-Iweala oversaw its high powered macroeconomic and sectorial policy dialogues and program implementations in Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia and Malaysia.
This is the woman whose CV so pleased a flustered President Olusegun Obasanjo, he invited her to be his economic adviser. Returning from prison to the presidency a year earlier, Obasanjo had found the economy in shambles and in a resolute effort to shake off the pariah status of the nation needed someone who could speak the language of the international financial community by his side. Okonjo-Iweala, whose trademark African prints and matching scarves made a famous statement about her ethnic pride and confidence, fit the bill perfectly from more than one perspective and Obasanjo could not hide his delight at having her on board.
Coming home therefore, to serve her fatherland, Okonjo-Iweala encountered a dire lack of capable administrators to interpret, oversee and implement government economic policies. The new economic adviser quickly organised, with the aid of the World Bank the training of over 40 mid-career civil servants and legislatives aides in this vital area. Working with a committee of 45 public servants, she fashioned a working document “Nigeria Economic Policy and Strategy: The Way Forward” to signpost the nation’s broad strategic directions in the new millennium.
Thereafter, she created a national Debt Management Office (DMO) along the lines of international good practice and took charge of revamping of the management of the nation’s external debt –which stood then at US$30 billion. Through her good offices also, an Economic Policy Coordinating Committee (EPCC) chaired by the vice president came into being to strengthen national economic policy coordination and implementation. Yet her work at the Bank continued in stride. She ran the operations and country support service of the Middle East and Africa Region and as deputy to the regional vice president helped manage the region’s work programme and oversaw the work of senior advisers providing support to regional staff and country clients in diverse areas. In November 2002 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed vice president and corporate secretary of the Bank. She remained at that post till July 2003, and in her role became the chief mediator between staff and management of the World Bank group and the executive Board of Governors.

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The announcement came in May 2003 after Obananjo’s tug of war with his deputy and feisty face off with Buhari and others at the polls, that Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, erstwhile economic adviser to the president was in contention for nomination and appointment as minister of finance. After her confirmation and swearing into office in July 2003, she launched a robust package of reforms to galvanise support for the national economy by international ratings agencies, Fitch and Standard and Poors. The BB- ratings from the international agencies inspired confidence within and outside the country for the continued health of the economy. Many at the time, attributed the endorsement by the ratings agencies as the singular handiwork of the new minister of finance. Her no nonsense approach to matters of probity and transparency at the ministry endeared her to progressives at home and abroad.
Controversy waited nonetheless with the work and negotiations she led to deliver a 60% or US$ 18 billion slashing of Nigeria’s external debt profile, and a discounted buy-back plan which lowered the external debt profile from US $35 billion to US$5 billion. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala also chaired a 13-person Presidential Economic Team that framed and implemented an Economic Reform Agenda to tackle corruption, increase transparency in government affairs, introduce probity in the management of public finances and strategic reforms in the public sector. Consequently, the economy grew at over 6% for the three years from 2004 -2006. On the eve of Okonjo Iweala’s departure from the office of minister of finance to the ministry of foreign affairs, Nigeria could boast of foreign reserves of US $21 billion.
The jury is still out there on why President Obasanjo sought to de-shine the star performer in his recovery cast by taking her off the spotlight to an obscure corner in the wings. When the fool hardy attempt to foist himself on the Nigerian people started to unravel, there was little doubt that Okonjo-Iweala was shoved out in remarkable style because she would not acquiesce to the tenure elongation programme. She was the first woman ever to be appointed minister of finance as well foreign minister. However, her three months record of service as minister of foreign affairs is nothing to crow about.
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“Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Former Nigerian Finance and Foreign Minister, Joins Brookings”- the international media announced in January 2007. Their source was no other than Strobe Talbott, the distinguished journalist and diplomat. As distinguished visiting fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program, of the world acclaimed think tank, “Okonjo-Iweala will focus on economic reform issues in Africa, corruption and governance in social sector financing, transparency and accountability, and global health financing issues,” the announcement said.
The statement prided her appointment on the fact that she had received the Euromarket Forum Award for Vision and Courage in 2003, won the TIME Magazine "Hero of the Year" in 2004, and had been honoured with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Brown University in 2006. Said Lael Brainard, vice president and director of Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution, "Ngozi's outstanding achievements as finance minister on fiscal reforms and in Nigeria's debt negotiations will bring a unique insider perspective to bear in our work on African economic reform and poverty alleviation – one of the great challenges of our time."
Yet, like a rolling that would brook no moss but gathers more polish in its rolling joust through time, Robert Zoellick president of the World Bank appointed her managing director of the on October 4, 2007, to continue her swashbuckling campaign against world poverty.
It is a matter of conjecture why she won out against other qualified persons but her outspoken concerns and essays about the trend of global finances and the role of the World Bank in ameliorating world poverty, not discounting her exemplary performance on several assignments for the Bank could only have worked in her favour.
In a paper titled, Nigeria’s Economic Reforms: Prospects and Challenges, co-authored in March 2007 with Philip Osafo-Kwaako a visiting research associate to the Brookings Institute, the duo reviewed Nigeria's recent experience with economic reforms and accepting that notable achievements had been recorded under the program, contended that significant challenges remained particularly in the areas of “translating the benefits of reforms into welfare improvements for citizens, in improving the domestic business environment, and in extending reform policies to states and local governments.”
They argued further that the “recent reform program must be viewed as the initial steps of a much longer journey of economic recovery and sustained growth.” Okonjo-Iweala and Osafo-Kwaaku listed a number of outstanding issues that future Nigerian administrations must address. Deriving from this, her essay, The World Needs a Stronger World Bank published in the International Herald Tribune of May 25, 2007 encapsulated the growing image problems of the Bank, but declared that the institution has a vital role to play in the arrest of world poverty.
“There is no doubt that we need the World Bank. It has a strong future, and it has a mandate that it must fulfill in helping the two billion people still living on less than $2 a day. It can only do so, however, if the countries that it serves feel true ownership of the institution. Why were there no voices raised from the developing world during the recent crisis against the damage being done to an institution with such a noble and critically important mission?
“Perhaps it is because developing countries feel they have so little voice at the bank, despite being the very reason for its existence. It is clear that the governance structure at the Bank must be addressed; that developing countries must feel they have a stake in its policies and its work. “
She cited the significant role played by the Bank during the the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, “when the Bank provided $10 billion in emergency financing to Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand.”
However, she asked the shareholders to focus on re-appraising the corporate governance of the bank. “Everything from the management selection to management structure to clarity on the role and operation of the board must be reexamined and reformed. Openness, transparency, and merit should be the bywords in doing such reforms. “
The World Bank has so much to offer the world, the Nigerian born world economic witch doctor reiterated. "But it needs to adapt, it needs to be flexible in a changing world.”
In 2011, Okonjo-Iweala returned to the service of the fatherland as the coordinating minister for the economy, and minister of finance. Her performance in fashioning a second regime of policy actions to rescue the national economy from an overloaded subsidy of the petroleum sector fuelled strong anti-government feelings in the New Year. The pros and cons of petroleum subsidy are still on the front burner of public discourse even as the government grapples with the task of “translating the benefits of reforms into welfare improvements for citizens, in improving the domestic business environment, and in extending reform policies to states and local governments.”
Some would say, physician, heal thyself and Okonjo-Iweala might point to SURE-P, the slow acting subsidy removal amelioration drug. She might even recap, with Osafo-Kwaako’s nod that reform is not a destination, but ‘a first step…’
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