IT is one of the enduring mysteries of Nigeria that, as an athlete on a 100-metre track, imbued with the talents of a fastest finisher, the country runs a race that defies reason. Hearing the starting gun fired, watching other competitors flying off, Nigeria takes some sluggish steps on the track. But just when it seems she would at least run and compete, even if a good timing has already eluded her, the country slacks again, even running backwards, as though those few steps were all she needed to engage the gear in reverse.

With talents she never uses, resources, material and human, she wastes, it is to Nigeria’s dubious credit that much in capital is given to her but little of value is yielded in return.

It is within the context of this predilection for talent-wasting that we must locate Nigeria’s advertised quest to run again and the deployment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as leader of the race.

With her academic qualifications, experience in Nigeria and at the World Bank, her suitability and preparedness for the job of Coordinating Minister for the Nigerian  Economy is not in doubt. Her muscles are well toned and she has had good practice sessions for this race.

Her international clout, even, has few equals.

It was very cold, as usual, in the mountain-top town of Davos, Switzerland in January 2007 but one woman was generating all the heat in the hall. She was the subject of several side talks. Though Brad Pitt was in the arena, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, then Nigeria’s Finance Minister was like the movie star whose autograph everybody wanted. At a session, Bono, the Irish rock music star who has become something of a conscience of the world on account of his charity work and advocacy for the world’s poor spared no words as he lambasted world leaders, not the least African leaders and public officials he accused of  doing too little for their people. He then singled out Okonjo-Iweala for praise.

In spite of the bad news on leadership from Africa, there is this great lady with the musical name, Oko..okoo.., said Bono, struggling not to bite his tongue as he tried to pronounce the name. A thunderous chorus from the usual Davos crowd of world leaders in government, business, media and civil society helped him out: Okonjo-Iweala! After which Bono fawned: “Oooh, she just gets it.”

It was such a heartfelt adulation that even Okonjo-Iweala’s boss, President  Olusegun Obasanjo acknowledged how well she had done and said “since Bono can’t seem able to stop talking about you, Ngozi, you might as well stand up for recognition.”  The Congress Hall where the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum was holding, of course, erupted in applause for Ngozi.

Such was her star power and such was her acknowledged accomplishments.

Which has also recommended her for what she is now:  coordinator of the economy, minister of finance, head of the economic management team. Her title is grand, her experience is huge, her reputation and record are stellar and from all indications, she has the backing of that constituency of One that matters most: the president.

Her name is not just musical, to use Bono’s expression,  it must be real music to the ears of many Nigerians who are familiar with her reputation and reasonably assume that with her they can expect sound economic policies that would engender prosperity for all from the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Reassuring as Okonjo-Iweala’s presence in this government is, and her stellar credentials notwithstanding, this is not her show. Whatever powers she may have been granted, whatever titles she answers and whatever access she has, the buck stops not with her but with the big man.

Which is why a thorough interrogation of Jonathan’s vision and capacity to execute that vision is a more urgent need than the euphoria attending his appointment of a stellar cast. Yes, the best and the brightest, a la John F. Kennedy, but doing what? If the vision of the President is not laid out in clear, coherent terms, and there is full faith in same by the man, they labour in vain who attempt to manage this economy.

Reform, reform, reform is the refrain. But of what? Under the weight of collapsed values, compounded by collapsed infrastructure, Nigeria’s economy today needs more than a reform, it needs recreation. That a massive excavation is an urgent need if we want to get to the rot beneath the rubble and re-build is evidenced by the stench that assaults at a mere scratch of the surface. And Jonathan is the one Nigerians have handed the pick-axe.

To attempt to run things as they are is to court disaster.  What Jonathan, with the help of Okonjo-Iweala and others must do therefore is to create an economy. And they must begin by paying attention to some little details.

At this point, last week’s statement  in New York by the lady herself  is mightily instructive.

Henceforth, waivers, she said, would not be granted as usual. And that those men who had hitherto banked on access to the president for economic favours like import waivers should know the end had come to such open rape of the economy. Very encouraging. At least in recognising that expediencies like the waivers have never helped Nigeria while making billionaires of the favoured.

But on reflection, isn’t this statement an indication of how bad things already are in terms of lack of structures on which to build an economy? What is there to reform in an economy in which a nation’s destiny, whether 140 million people get to eat rice or find kerosene and cooking gas for their use had been dependent on which side of the bed a few people with late-night access to the President woke up?

Of course, there are no guarantees that even if Okonjo-Iweala chooses to lay down her life in this battle against these special interests, they still won’t defeat her.

The influential and privileged ones who thrive on the nation’s systemic dysfunction are in the lounges and bedrooms of power and will be much more desperate now than ever. Can Okonjo-Iweala withstand their desperation and can Jonathan truly back her in this fight?

Elementary economics is enough instruction on what Nigeria needs. But as simple as it is Nigeria has been unable to make two plus two equal four. Not because the answer is not known but because the kind of leadership needed to write out the answer in bold has been elusive.

Can Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spearhead the  implementation of  policies which, by ensuring patronage of our manufactures,  would  encourage the growth of local industry?

Our manufacturers will require the care of government. Blessed as we are, we all know we ought not to depend  on supplies from other countries. Would they pursue policies that end this?

The deficiency in Nigeria’s revenue base is not just in its volume, which is meagre compared to what is needed to build the country, it is not only in its perilously narrow source, oil and gas, and not even just in the pillaging of what is available, criminal as that is. It is in a failure to let agriculture be the main source and all other sources secondary, in spite of billions of dollars spent over the years supposedly on the sector. Would that day come soon when the revenue of Nigeria will indeed be sourced predominantly from the fruits and crops of the land? That is the only thing that will make the economy successful on a long-term basis.

But as simple as these sound, they will be the most difficult things to do. Because of the men in the middle who will find a way around or beyond Okonjo-Iweala and because this is Nigeria.

I am full of sympathy for the woman, in tremulous anticipation of the landmines of distorted values in leadership which may rubbish her good plans, explode and cripple her.  Luckily for her though, there are daily flights to Washington DC, via Europe.

What miracles can be wrought for an economy in which two-thirds of the resources go to recurrent expenditure, leaving only a meagre balance for real development? And, tragically, when Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank Governor drew attention to this, Nigeria’s leadership, especially in the legislative arm, sought his head.

After much outcry, officials in both the executive and the legislature claimed to have reduced their take-home pay and cut allowances but it is on record as token. So, nothing really has changed.

In a country where the legislature, supposedly the people’s representatives and watchmen over the public purse, not only fails in its duty of ensuring that public funds are properly applied by a thieving  executive, the body of lawmakers is itself a collaborator, in some cases, a more entrenched party, in the conscienceless looting of the purse, what magic can our lady perform?

The distortions in our system are such that, at the risk of sounding simplistic, the ordinary rules of economic  management don’t just apply. When GDP figures are announced and economic growth percentages are celebrated, it is difficult not to wonder where the growth is. Because you never see it on real people. Those figures, in their fictitiousness, often sound like profit reports of wonder banks.

Honest labour hardly gets rewarded and instant, fabulous wealth ends up in the hands of only those rent collectors who have created and mastered the distortions, have collaborators in power and are therefore able to build palaces with the blood, sweat and crushed bones of poor Nigerians.

That is not an economy, let alone one in which anything can be measured. I am not saying miracles cannot happen. Just wondering where the nerve to do it will come from.  With the army of middlemen who have access?

In seeking to create an economy, this team will first have to build a structure that defeats the kind of special interests  our lady spoke about. If import waivers would make a man a billionaire overnight, he can never be interested in Nigeria’s manufacturing or agriculture. If a sheet of paper entitles a man to import kerosene at a margin that suddenly enables  him  bankroll election of people into the highest offices, Okonjo-Iweala has her  battle well cut out. And one hopes the Constituency of One behind her is truly there and has the moral fibre to join her in standing up to these interests.

We must remember that the lady with the musical name did this before, leading Obasanjo’s economic management team with some success. We must also remember how, as usual, upon the quest for term elongation by Obasanjo and, finally, upon the emergence of the drowsiness  of Umaru Yar’Adua/Goodluck Jonathan, the race forward was not only halted, it changed course backwards.

That is the story of Nigeria and the context in which the new efforts must be appreciated.

Of course, nothing would be more pleasing that an end-result that defies the above-stated cynicism, one in which Nigerians are actually led to prosperity.

If that happens, Okonjo-Iweala would have helped Jonathan play a tune to which Nigerians can dance. And her name, more than ever, will sound like music to the ears.

Until then, we retain our doubts as we watch the drama of The Man at the helm, the buccaneering middlemen and the woman in the middle.

-Guardian

Posted by admin on Sep 26 2011. Filed under Women Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry