5 July 2009
analysis
Lagos — Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is a woman of history. A director of the World Bank, she was Nigeria's Finance Minister and then briefly Foreign Affairs Minister from 2003 to 2006, the first woman to hold either position.
As a Minister Ngozi stood out as the first female senior member of government to be seen in public neither heavily bedecked in precious stones nor wearing dresses made of the most expensive fabrics.
She made high fashion out of her low-cut hair, simple scarf tied, seemingly loosely, on her forehead and dresses made of printed cotton.
She refused to grow out of her strictly conservative background. Her parents were impoverished by the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to 1970 and so she was denied the pampering she might have received from her father who was a renowned economist and professor.
Okonjo-Iweala is from Delta State where her father Professor Chukuka Okonjo is the Obi, from the Umu Obi Obahai Royal Family of Ogwashi-Ukwu.
Dr. Ngozi Iweala-Okonjo was educated at Harvard University (A.B. Magna Cum Laude 1977) and earned her Ph.D. in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is married to a man from Umuahia, Abia State and they have four children. The eldest, Onyinye Iweala received her Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from Harvard University in 2008 and currently attends Harvard Medical School. Her son, Uzodinma Iweala, is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Beasts of No Nation (2005).'
Prior to her ministerial career in Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala was vice-president and corporate secretary of the World Bank Group. She left it in 2003 after she was appointed to President Obasanjo's cabinet as Finance Minister on 15 July.
In October 2005, she led the Nigerian team that struck a deal with the Paris Club, a group of bilateral creditors, to pay a portion of Nigeria's external debt (US $12 billion) in return for an $18 billion debt write-off. Prior to the partial debt payment and write-off, Nigeria spent roughly U.S. $1 billion every year on debt servicing, without making a dent in the principal owed.
Okonjo-Iweala also introduced the practice of publishing each state's monthly financial allocation from the federal government in the newspapers. She was instrumental in helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign credit rating (of BB minus) from Fitch and Standard & Poor's. Nigeria is considered to have defaulted on its sovereign debt in 1983.
Some controversy surrounded Okonjo-Iweala's appointment as Finance Minister, as well as that of Foreign Affairs minister, Olu Adeniji, as other ministers were resentful of their United Nations salaries of over US$240,000, compared with their own $6,000 base salary. The controversy was spearheaded by media reports, although Okonjo-Iweala felt that her critics were unjustified because of the temporary nature of the payment, which came out of the donor supported Diaspora Fund negotiated by the Nigerian government.
She resigned as Nigeria's Foreign Minister on August 3, 2006 following her sudden removal as head of Nigeria's Economic Intelligence team by President Olusegun Obasanjo. She left office at the end of August 2006.
During her tenure as Finance Minister, she worked to combat corruption, make Nigeria's finances more transparent, and institute reforms to make the nation's economy more hospitable to foreign investment. The government unlinked its budget from the price of oil, its main export, to lessen perennial cashflow crises, and got oil companies to publish how much they pay the government.
Since 2003 -- when watchdog group Transparency International rated Nigeria "the most corrupt place on Earth" -- the nation has made headway recovering stolen assets and jailing hundreds of people engaged in international Internet 419 scams.
"Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a heroine not just of Nigeria, but of the entire continent. Her crusade against corruption has put her life at risk."
Okonjo-Iweala once told The Guardian of UK "When I became finance minister they called me Okonjo-Wahala - or Trouble Woman," "It means 'I give you hell.' But I don't care what names they call me. I'm a fighter; I'm very focused on what I'm doing, and relentless in what I want to achieve, almost to a fault. If you get in my way you get kicked."
She however emphasizes that she is not a proud person either. "I also think women have less ego. If someone's saying things to make me feel bad, I don't care as long as I get the job done. When it comes to doing my job I keep my ego in my handbag."
On October 4, 2007, World Bank President Robert Zoellick appointed her to the post of Managing Director, effective December 1, 2007 a position she occupies currently.
She oversees a diverse mix of infrastructure and regional integration projects. As financial and food supply worries grip the globe, the World Bank is preparing aid packages to vulnerable nations. On a recent trip to Delhi, she became Bangladesh's advocate against India's tightening of rice exports
Also in 2007, Okonjo-Iweala's NGO, NOI Global Consulting, partnered with the Gallup Organization to introduce an opinion poll, the NOI poll, into the Nigerian polity. She is a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Okonjo-Iweala also serves on the Board of Directors of the World Resources Institute.
Okonjo Iweala has received several awards including, Time Europe Hero 2004, This Day Nigeria Minister of the Year 2004, Euromoney Magazine Global Finance Minister of the year 2005, Financial Times/The Banker African Finance Minister 2005,
Nigerian of the Year 2006.
Additionally, on September 28, 2007, Irish musician Bono was awarded the Liberty Medal. Bono donated the $100,000 prize to the Washington-based Debt AIDS Trade Africa, which he co-founded, and Okonjo-Iweala accepted the award on the organization's behalf.
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