Okonjo-Iweala: Nigerian icon serving Africa on critical boards

Four critical appointments by global bodies and countries in two months speak to the acclaim and clout of Nigeria’s former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. While the World recognises and appreciates her expertise, mum is the word in her home, Nigeria. Instead, misguided persons throw darts at this serial achiever over non-issues.

True leaders stand out in a crisis. The New York Times states that while leadership may be hard to define, it is easy to identify in a demanding situation. In Africa, the World has recognised the great leadership attributes and skills of Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, thus appreciating her with more responsibilities to serve humanity.

The World Health Organisation named Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala a Special Envoy for the newly inaugurated Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator on 25 April 2020. She would serve alongside British business executive, Andrew Witty, to mobilise international commitment to the initiative.

On 10 April, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, named Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (NOI) as a member of the External Advisory Group of the IMF. The group of prominent individuals from around the World would serve as the IMF chief’s special advisers to provide insights to enhance the Fund’s ability to serve its membership.

Before then, on 7 March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa appointed NOI a member of the country’s Economic Advisory Council, which comprises indigenous and international economic experts. The Council advises the president and government on the development and implementation of financial policies toward advancing inclusive growth.

Okonjo-Iweala is also one of the four Special Envoys the African Union (AU) appointed on 12 April 2020 to mobilise international support for its efforts toward addressing the coronavirus pandemic.
If Okonjo-Iweala is without honour in her native Nigeria, as frequent trenchant criticisms of her at home suggest, she is undoubtedly highly celebrated abroad. And with these appointments coupled with her leadership traits and professionalism, we clearly state that Okonjo-Iweala is a plus to Africa and the rest of the World but a loss to Nigeria.

The service of personalities like Okonjo Iweala to other countries and foreign organisations and institutions but Nigeria illustrates our failure to recognise and appreciate the works of her technocrats in shaping the economy. Even those the government has appointed cried out to get a listening ear. Nigeria shunned the counsel of the Presidential Economic Advisory Committee (EAC) headed by a renowned economist and professor, Doyin Salami until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced a change.

Rising numbers of skilled professionals from our country are currently serving various countries of the World, particularly the advanced economies. Nigeria loses the services of these experts at a time when it needs their expertise. A Nigerian Babafemi Taiwo, chief of infectious diseases at Northwestern Medicine, USA leads the team working on Remdesivir, a drug that shortened the time to recovery for coronavirus by 31 percent — 11 days on average versus 15 days for those just given usual care.

Our loss of human capital is counterproductive and certainly works against our declarations about people and their significance in national development. Nigeria’s Human Capital Index, which measures how best a country mobilises the economic and professional potential of its citizens, depicts this confusion. In 2018, Nigeria ranked 152 out of 157 countries, placing her among the seven worst countries according to the World Bank’s Human Capital Index.

Amid the current COVID-19 pandemic, Okonjo-Iweala has risen to the moment, demonstrating resolve, courage, empathy, respect for science and basic decency and thereby dulling the impact of the virus on Africans.

She spearheaded a global campaign to mobilise assistance for Africa to mitigate the crises. She led efforts to request a two-year standstill on all external-debt repayments, both interest and principal, of the IMF and World Bank through the G20 nations. According to Okonjo Iweala, “A global response to COVID-19 that doesn’t fully support developing countries is no response at all.”
The nation’s planners must review our Human Capital management framework urgently to ensure optimal utilisation of all our assets. These times call for strategic actions and not ones beclouded by base considerations. Nigeria must learn to keep and utilise its “assets” because losing them to the outside world is at the nation’s peril.