Why I Won't Serve In Buhari's Govt. - Dr. Okonjo-Iweala; See 33 Quotes Of The Ex-Minister's On The State of The Economy

Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said she would not serve in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, even if invited.

Okonjo-Iweala said this on Monday during a programme on Al Jazeera, The Stream.

She said this was because Nigeria boasts of competent people.

She said it was better to allow those managing the economy now to do the best they could, noting that there could be solutions to the present economic decline in the country.

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Okonjo-Iweala, who served in the administrations of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan for seven years, said: “One of the things you learn as you get wiser is to talk less as you grow older.

1. “I have spent my time contributing to the country.
2. “It will be better to live those managing the economy to do what they know how to do.
3. “There can be solutions.
4. “I am not a typical politician.
5. “I went in as a technocrat.
6. “I think on the continent we have seen a period when the economy was doing well.
7. “In the last two years we have been experiencing challenges.
8. “We need to focus on the basics, which are macro-economics.
9. “You must get the fundamentals like having a stable exchange rate and having inflation under control.
10. “I served my country for seven years and it was a great honour.
11. “The second time was very tough but it is still an honour.
12. “I am not the only person who is a repository of knowledge.
13. “There are other people who can equally try their hands in running the economy.
14. “I will advice young people not to wait for employment.
15. “They should create jobs to employ six people or more.
16. “During my time in government, we had a programme called ‘You Win’ designed to support young entrepreneurs.
17. “The whole idea was to have a business plan competition.
18. “The idea was that they should create jobs.
19. “And each created nine to 10 jobs.
20. “The World Bank did an evaluation of it and found it good.
21. “I do believe that the government should come in.
22. “We started a peer to peer mentoring.
23. “Now, one of the things I want to say is that creating employment is not only about struggles, it is about managing success. ”Speaking on the anti-corruption war during the two regimes in which she served, Okonjo-Iweala said:
24. “It was a very tough fight.
25. “I must thank my team.
26. “You don’t do it alone.
27. “I had the support of an economic team in the Ministry of Finance.
28. “It was tough because at the end of the day, you need to have some principles.”  Okonjo-Iweala told her interviewers, including listeners who sent in questions, that the average lifespan of a Minister of Finance was two years.
    She said it was difficult for a Minister of Finance to be loved by anyone.
    She said this was because their jobs was to turn down demands for money by just anyone.
    She said: “The average life span of a Finance Minister is two year in a country.
29. “No one likes a Finance Minister because it is the business of saying no.
30. “It is very difficult and challenging.
31. “It was interesting for me.
32. “I wish I had seen myself as wielding power.
33. “All I saw was the job because I was seeing myself working for the country.”

TheEagleOnline

JONATHAN Not BUHARI Responsible For Nigeria's Current Economic Woes - Dr. Okonjo-Iweala

TheCable - Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former minister of finance, on Thursday said the zero political will to save under former President Goodluck Jonathan is responsible for the challenges the country is facing.

Speaking on “inequality, growth and resilience,” at George Washington University, the two-time finance minister said the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must seek means to embed savings in national constitutions devoid of political manipulations.

Okonjo-Iweala added that Nigeria was able to save $22 billion under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which saved the country in 2008, when there was global economic meltdown.

Speaking on the Chilean saving example, Okonjo-Iweala said: “We tried it in Nigeria, we put in an oil price based fiscal rule in 2004 and it worked very well.

“We saved $22 billion because the political will to do it was there. And when the 2008 /2009 crisis came, we were able to draw on those savings precisely to issue about a 5 percent of GDP fiscal stimulus to the economy and we never had to come to the bank or the fund.

“This time around and this is the key now, you need not only need to have the instrument but you also need the political will. In my second time as a finance minister, from 2011 to 2015, we had the instrument, we had the means, we had done it before, but zero political will.

“So we were not able to save when we should have. That is why you find that Nigeria is now in the situation it is in. Along with so many other countries.”

On solving the problem of political will and political manipulations, she said: “That is the question that I ask, what do we need to do to these countries to save over a period of long accelerated growth.

“We need to devise mechanisms not just that are good technically but find a way to either embed them in the constitution or find a way to separate them from the political manipulation so that these countries can survive over time.

“To build resilience, African countries need tools, mechanisms and it is doable and we need to interrogate ourselves why we have not done it.”

She added that manufacturing was also critical to growth in Nigeria and the rest of Africa, quoting manufacturing as just 11 percent of GDP in Africa, and nine percent in Nigeria.

“I do not believe that we can be resilient, except if we can encourage manufacturing even on the goods we consume, services, entertainment industry, agriculture.

“I think these are the kinds of questions that policy makers struggle with on a daily basis and that is what we are going to answer to get resilience.

“If we don’t get these mechanisms, we politicise them, find ways to transform the base of the economy and create jobs including in manufacturing, I believe we are going to go into this looming deceleration that is being talked about.”

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