Former Minister of
Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at an event preceding the signing of the book,
‘Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines’ held at the
Politics and Prose, Washington DC, which had in audience members of her family,
friends, colleagues, international institutions representatives, disclosed why
she wrote the book. She also read two portions from the book, to illustrate
what she had to go through in the fight against corruption in Nigeria.
She also revealed how her bold move to confront a
deadly group saved her from being confined to a wheelchair the rest of her
life, just as she revealed how Christine Lagarde’s visit in December 2011, was
almost marred by a top official in Jonathan’s government all in a bid to arm
twist her to back down in implementing the presidential order to end Cargo
Tracking Note, a transaction that was yielding $6 million annually but was not
getting into government coffers.
Why did you to write the book?
When I set out to write, I knew I was going to write
a book because I wanted to write a sequel to my first book. You may not have
seen it, it is also from MIT Press called ‘Reforming the Unreformable: Lessons
from Nigeria’. It captures public policy lessons from the first time that I was
in government as finance minister and all the various reforms that were done
with the economic team that I worked with under President Obasanjo at the time.
It talks about our efforts to get debt relief etc but focused a lot on the
macro economic reforms.
I thought after a second time in office I will be
writing a volume two which will focus on reforms in the real sector –
agriculture, telecommunications, and power. What exactly were the reforms we
did in those sectors and what were the successes and failures. So, I actually
set out to write volume two but when I sat down, what came out from my laptop
was different. I found myself putting down the story of what happened to my
mother. And that meant that somewhere deep inside … and as I was doing it I was
very emotional, very upset and I realised how upset I was at what had happened
and in many senses still I am.
So, I wrote that chapter and I showed it to my
husband and he said, well, ‘you have to finish, why was she kidnapped?’ And that
led to the next chapter and the rest is history. So I ended up writing a
somewhat different book from what I had expected to write and it became this
book about fighting corruption.
So, one of the reasons was a very personal account
of what happened to me and the reasons why it happened and the stories about
the different ways that people were trying to engender leakages within the
economy just came out. And that became this book. So that was the first thing,
to get out that story. As I was doing it, also all the explanations for the
personal attacks and the other attacks I suffered during the time within and
outside government, this came naturally as part of the flow.
Why did these things happened, it all began to make
sense. I needed to make sense of it to myself, I needed to make sense of it to
others, and I needed even to make sense of it to members of the economic team.
And I am very, very happy that today we have Dr. Nwanze Okodegbe, right here.
He was the Chief Economic Adviser to the president and he was a member of that
team. We saw a lot of odd things together. So explanation as to why this thing
happened, that is the first part.
The second was that there is just so much going on
about corruption in emerging markets around. South Korea, you saw what happened
to the president being jailed for 24 years. Brazil, there was so much noise
about the car wash scandal. Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, Malaysia, you name it, so
many examples of emerging markets countries having one discussion after the
other about corruption. And as a development economist, you know this is
something central to the work we do, something we worry about. And we just
talked about fighting corruption and trying to make sure that resources that
should go to eradicating poverty, providing services for poor people are not
hijacked by those in society who would do that.
The third reason was just one of giving hope. When
you hear about corruption there are rarely any success stories action, people
don’t focus on those who are fighting corruption and what successes they made.
They focus on more salacious aspects. How much people have stolen, how much
they have and what is happening to them. And the tough fight that is really
needed and the people who are doing it are not talked about.
In addition to that, there is the tendency to focus
as I said on the more sexy aspects in terms of who was arrested, who did what
to whom, how much did they steal and what is happening. But the tough, tough
work of really wanting to fight corruption of institution building is not
talked about. And I am very convinced as I have said to other audiences, that
the difference between people in my country and other African countries or the
US or Europe is much related. If they had the same weak institutions that we have,
people will also put their hands on the money. It is because these countries
have very strong institutions that you find fewer leakages. There is corruption
everywhere, whether it is in Europe or the US but the degree is less with those
countries with stronger institutions. That work of building stronger
institutions takes time. And that was partly what we did in Nigeria, put down
some few institutions that helped to block some leakages.
So I also wanted to put that down and draw people’s
attention to the fact that it is the hard work that is needed, whether it is
strengthening the judiciary, whether it is putting in place in the ministry of
finance the kind of financial management systems that are needed in order to
manage your finances in modern fashion that doesn’t allow leakages from the
budget.
Can you tell us about the Christine Lagarde’s
encounter?
About six weeks into the implementation in early
December 2011, I received a message that a top ranking presidential aide wanted
me to stop by his office any time I was in the Villa. The Villa is the
equivalent of the White House. This official was one of the important aides in
the Villa. So, I went to his office the next day. The presidential aide told me
that he wanted to convey a message to me that they were people not happy with
the port reforms especially the abolishment of the Cargo Tracking Note. And he
asked me, indeed advised me to reinstate it. I was dismayed because the fact
that the matter has been brought to his attention meant that whoever the unhappy
people were, they were influential. I explained the genesis of the port
reforms, the situation of the presidential task force and the approvals for
action given by the president. By implementing the reforms measures we were
just carrying out the presidential approvals. He said he understood but that I
should nevertheless find away to reinstate the Cargo Tracking Note.
I left his office very troubled. Being on the wrong
side of people who had this kind of top levels influence made me uneasy. I knew
they could be consequences but I also knew that there was no going back on
these important reforms. Clearly the $6 million from the Nigerian Ports
Authority from the Cargo Tracking Note not being remitted to the treasury must
be going into some influential pockets.
The morning after meeting with the presidential
aide, the consequences began to become clear. I was privileged that part of my
daily routine was to join the president and his family and his few close
friends in Christian fellowship and morning prayers in the residential complex
of the Villa. It was a way to gain strength for each difficult day. The prayer
normally began at 6am so by 5:45am every day, I arrived at the Villa gate I was
routinely waved in. That morning the gates remained firmly shot as I drove up
and I was told I could not go in. Taken back I asked why, all I could get as a
response was that the gate keepers had received instructions not to let me in
for morning prayers. I began to argue but realizing that it was fruitless, I
returned home. At that point I felt a mistake had occurred and thought no more
about it.
But for the next three days I was blocked from
entering for the early morning prayers at the Villa. By the third day, the
security officers at the gate all of whom knew me well told me, ‘Honourable
Minister Ma, I think you need to talk to the presidential aide, ‘they gave me
the name of the aide and it was the same person who had asked me to restore the
Cargo Tracking Note. Then I understood. When I called one of my prayer fellowship
friends on phone, Mr. John Kenny Opara and told him about the situation, he
said he would discuss this with the villa pastor and they will intercede on my
behalf.
After going to the gate and not allowed in for the
fourth time, I pushed the situation to the back of my mind and turned to the
preparations for the upcoming visit to Nigeria of the Managing Director of the
International Monetary Fund, Madame Christian Lagarde, on December 18-20, 2011.
My biggest preoccupation was to ensure that in the raging national debate about
the phase out of oil subsidies, Madame Lagarde’s visit was not miscast by the
media or anti-government forces as the IMF telling the government what to do on
energy subsidies. Madame Lagarde, was equally concerned that her objectives be
clearly understood as reviewing our macroeconomic and growth reform and
offering encouragement and support.
The visit proceeded smoothly as Madame Lagarde met
with members of the Economic Management Team, the Central Bank and other
important bank officials. She was scheduled to meet with the president on the
final day of her visit December 20. There are usually many protocols and
conventions to observe on high level visits especially when the visitor is
accorded head of state’s status as Christine Lagarde was. One of these is for
such dignitaries to enter the Villa for a meeting with the president through a
gate designated for Heads of State only. Because Madame Lagarde was to use this
gate, I had asked my staff to double check and ensure all was in order and I
was reassured that this was the case.
But when the motorcade reached this gate it was
denied entry. Embarrassed, I tried to find out from the security guards what
was going on; they said they had no instructions for her to use that gate. And
we should proceed to the entrance reserved for state governors, certain
designated ministers I was one of them and other dignitaries. We were already
running late. So I apologised to Madame Lagarde and told her there must be a
mix up and asked the drivers to proceed to the other gate. When we got there we
were again denied entry. By this time it was clear to me that there was no
misunderstanding but that this was deliberate. We were told to go back to the
regular entrance used by everybody, park our car there and we will have to
walk, five minutes down the villa corridors which were long and leading to the
president’s meeting room.
Such treatment of such dignatory at the level of
head of state was unheard of. Christine, clever as she is had figured out
something was wrong but she didn’t know what. She handled it all with gaits and
elegance telling me she didn’t really care which gate she went through or how
far she had to walk as long as we met with the president. By this time we were
about 10 minutes late. We eventually made it to the meeting. When the president
enquired if everything was alright, she replied wittily, Mr. President there
was a bit of a mix up about gates and we had to walk here. But it gives me the
chance to see your beautiful Villa and its lovely gardens. The President looked
puzzled but smiled and started the meeting. I never shared with him or with
Christine Lagarde what I thought had happened that day.
It shocks me to this day that the gate saga as I
later described it to John Kennedy, my prayer meeting friend, was part of the
fall out of eliminating the Cargo Tracking Note. It still seems unbelievable
that people will put at risk such a high level and important visit for the
country’s economy because of personal interest. John Kennedy and the Villa
pastor eventually persuaded the top presidential aide to drop this tactics by
explaining to him that such tactics could backfire if one day the president
summons me for an emergency meeting as he was wont to do and I was prevented
from entering the villa and had to tell him why. Eventually, the pressure from
the abolition of the Cargo Tracking Note lessened but I remained uneasy until
the end of the administration.
But one of the reasons I wrote this book as I said
is also to give hope and for the younger people to know that there are actually
things you can do that will block corruption. That if we can build all of those
institutions and we did at that time, and if you can take a stand that you can
have victories that will illustrate that we shouldn’t all give up, we can make
it.
What are the lessons?
There are several lessons that I think we should
take away from the book. One of the most important ones and I call them
reflections from the frontline is that, in fighting corruption, corruption has
to be fought from inside not outside. Outsiders cannot fight it. Outsiders can
help – donors, country partners and others have a role to play but they can
only play a supporting role, they have to find partners from inside, who know
exactly how the place works and how it can be fought. You can’t also fight
alone, you need coalitions of support, and it is not one person.
People tend to say Okonjo-Iweala fought corruption,
no. There were teams, there were members, and you need coalitions. I had people
on my ministry, I had people in the economic team, and I had others. You need
support from above in other to make it work. You need communications and
signalling that this is not the right way a place should run and that you are
going to do something about it. And you need your personal integrity if you are
to going to fight this kind of corruption, you absolutely yourself and your
team must keep your noise clean and your head straights because if you even
deviate one iota, they will get you and you will be punished for it. You have
got to have a talk with those working with you; you have got to have a lot of
personal integrity.
And those fighting needs help. Is not good enough to
stay out here as development partners and practitioners and urged the fight
against corruption. I’m lucky because I had options, I had people who
supported, I had a place to go. I am very grateful to the international
community for the support they gave and for those within the continent who also
reached out. There were several heads of states that were supportive. But what
if no one knows you? What if you don’t have a track record outside? What if you
had nowhere to go? This is what the development community must think about. If
you want people to fight corruption they need to feel the support and they need
safety nets, they need to be able to come out if necessary and have a place to
go to and resources to support them. So I am advocating that some of the
foundations, some of the institutions should think about starting a fund.
I know that when Nuhu Ribadu at the time that his
tenure at the EFCC had finished, he needed somewhere to go when things were not
so easy for him. There was no money, no support. I was at the World Bank then
as managing director and together with Todd Moss of the Center for Global
Development and others, we got together and we manage to get the Norwegians to
put money for 18 months to support Nuhu and his family and they gave him a
place at Center for Global Development. He was able to bring out his wife and
children and they were able to live for 18 months and by that time things had
calm down and he was able to go home again.
And then Detongo from Kenya, it was only when
friends at Oxford University in England arranged something for him that he was
able to have support. But these are adhoc measures and I want us to think of
some kind of more permanent supportive system that can encourage people who are
really putting themselves on the line to stay steadfast and fight corruption.
There is a movement and people are interested in doing this, so let’s see how
it goes.
Is corruption more prominent in Africa?
I don’t think corruption is an African problem. It
is not in our culture, it is not peculiar to us. In this book, there are few
pages about Nigeria, and one of the things I say is that majority of Nigerians
are honest, hardworking people who just want the government to provide basic
services and then get out of the way and they will do the rest. And that is what
it is. The majority of Nigerians are honest, hardworking people just like
anywhere but we do have sometimes corrupt and kleptocratic elites, that have
captured the heart of governance and so in essence we were held hostage. And it
is the same in many countries but in Africa our institutions are not strong
enough, there are weak. To illustrate to you, in one of the chapters in the
book, I talked about the first time I became finance minister, I discovered
that the ministry of finance was still doing a lot of things manually and by
cash. So if we wanted to pay the ministry of agriculture, we will transfer the
money to them. They will give us a payroll number at the end of the month and
then we will total it up and pay. That means you can introduce all kinds of
names into the system each month. And so there was a bit of a racket, where
people higher up will introduce two or three names, we called them ghost
workers and they all died and became ghost pensioners. And people were
collecting this money because we didn’t have the system.
So when I discovered this, I was horrified and I
said to President Obasanjo at the time that we had to do something and what we
did was to go to the World Bank, DFID, USAID Agency and the IMF and we asked
for him. We took a World Bank credit of $76 million, so, this is documented to
help us build the system. It was an economic governance project and we put in
three systems and it took 10 years.
Part of the reason I went back the second time was
that when I left the first time, it slowed down and something that should have
been finished was still lying there because people were not too interested in
completing the work including the government.
We built Government Integrated Financial System
Management (GIFSM) that built a platform to link the treasury with the
ministries, with the accountant general’s office so we could at least have an
IT and an electronic platform for our cash management. Then we put in the
Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS), which required civil servants to
get biometric ID, if you do that and you give us an account we can pay you
directly and we don’t have to transfer money. The third part was Treasury
Single Account (TSA), which we moved away accounts from the banks where the
ministries were keeping them into the central bank, we migrated all the capital
accounts first and we were about to do the recurrent accounts in the second
time around, when we left office.
As I’m saying this is very difficult, if you think
of this as fighting corruption this is not the kind of things that make people
run right, all these things GIFSM, IPPIS, TSA sound very technical. But if you
say I arrested somebody and blasted it in the press everybody will sit up but
that is not going to build you these systems. What I am trying to say is that
it is not cultural or inherent it is the absence of such systems.
By the way in the book I did document that we were
able to weed out 64,000 ghost workers through the system (IPPIS) and saved the
government $1.1 billion.
Is there a role for a Nigerian in the Diaspora to
play in this fight?
You know this is going to sound funny to you, many
people said to me that ‘after all the experience and the attacks, I will never
go back,’ some young people will say if you were there and they did all these.
But you know I went back not once but three times – I went the first time as
economic adviser, second time as finance minister, third time as finance
minister and coordinating minister. And I will still say one of the best ways
to contribute is to try and go back but it entails a lot of sacrifice and a
very, very thick skin. You know that is one of the ways. Nobody is going to
help us build that country. It is very easy, I could have just stayed where I
was, I had a perfectly wonderful job that I love. There was nothing driving me
and I wasn’t going there to steal, so there was no reason for me to go. I went
because I love my country and no matter what, Nigeria is probably one of the
most difficult and complex countries to manage but it is also one of the most
interesting and I love it. And that will not change. And if you love it you
will want to do something to contribute.
So what I still say to young people in Diaspora, it
does not have to be in government, it could be in civil society, it could be in
the private sector but if you think you have a skill, there is a niche where
you can show that things can be done well and properly, do it. If you can even
contribute by changing the life of one person, do it.
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