‘I am not available to serve in Buhari’s government’

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, finance minister in the last administration, says she is unavailable to serve in President Muhammadu Buhari’s government if she is offered the opportunity.  

Okonjo-Iweala disclosed this while participating in an Aljazeera programme: The Stream, saying her reasons are that President Buhari has competent hands in his cabinet, as there can be solutions to the present economic downturn within the country.

According to Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria boasts of competent people who will offer their services when called upon, hence it is better to allow those managing Nigeria’s economy to do the best they can.

“One of the things you learn as you get wiser is to talk less as you grow older. I have spent my time contributing to the country. It will be better to live those managing the economy to do what they know how to do. There can be solutions,” Okonjo-Iweala said, decrying that the economic gains recorded in Africa started eroding a few years ago.

To her, solving macro-economic question is key to fixing the continent’s economic challenges, and having a firm control over inflation rate in addition to ensuring a stable exchange rate, should be prioritised by African governments.

“I went in as a technocrat. I think on the continent we have seen a period when the economy was doing well; in the last two years, we have been experiencing challenges. We need to focus on the basics, which are macroeconomics.

“You must get the fundamentals like having a stable exchange rate and having inflation under control. I served my country for seven years and it was a great honour.

“The second time was very tough but it is still an honour. I am not the only person who is a repository of knowledge. There are other people who can equally try their hands in running the economy,” she said.

On the unemployment level in the country, she said: “I will advise young people not to wait for employment. They should create jobs to employ six people or more. During my time in government, we had a programme called You Win designed to support young entrepreneurs. The whole idea was to have a business plan competition. The idea was that they should create jobs. And each created nine to 10 jobs.

“The World Bank did an evaluation of it and found it good. I do believe that the government should come in. We started a peer-to-peer mentoring. 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 her roles as finance minister, she said: “The average life span of a finance minister is two years in a country. No one likes a finance minister because it is the business of saying no.

“It is very difficult and challenging. It was interesting for me. I wish I had seen myself as wielding power. All I saw was the job because I was seeing myself working for the country.”

On how the anti-corruption initiative was carried out during her time in office, she said: “It was a very tough fight, I must thank my team, you don’t do it alone, I had the support of an economic team in the Ministry of Finance. It was tough because at the end of the day you need to have some principles.”

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala earlier this year advised President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that those who steal must be made to pay for their deeds. The ex-minister made this known while speaking at the Africa CEO forum on Monday, March 21 in Ivory Coast, saying the best way to fight corruption was by employing technology and building institutions.