Former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has revealed the
true reason why her mother was abducted in the heat of the 2015
presidential election.
According to the economist, her mother was abducted because she
urged former President Goodluck Jonathan, to remove fuel subsidy.
Okonjo opened up on many other interesting and shocking details.
She made the revelation while speaking in an interview with Le
Monde. She also revealed that the abductors of her mother asked her to
tender her resignation on national television as a condition for the
release of her 83-year-old mother.
But, her dogged father talked her out of it. She revealed that
former President Jonathan advised her against stepping down during the
period which she described as the ‘worst moment of my life’.
“On my first experience as minister, I wrote a book, Reforming
the unreformable (ed. The MIT Press, 2012). For the second, it was
really difficult. Nigeria subsidizes fuel. About $ 6.7 billion that it
costs, we found that 1.5 billion was fraudulent.
“One importer claimed that his boat was waging its oil while at
the other end of the world, according to maritime classification
society Lloyd’s Register Marine.”
“I told the president that we would stop paying. What happened?
They kidnapped my mother, 83 years. During the first three days, their
only demand was my resignation. I was supposed to go on television and
announce my resignation.
“This was one of the worst moments of my life. Can you imagine
what happens in your head if you have to be responsible for the death of
your mother?
“I will not go into details, but you must understand that in a
country like this… in the fight against corruption, we must be prepared
to pay a personal price. My father asked me not to resign. The president
asked me not to resign. At the end, everyone began looking for her, and
the kidnappers released [her].”
“Some economists are very concerned for Nigeria, which could
greatly suffer from the fall in oil prices. Others say on the contrary,
that its economy is strong enough to turn the corner.
“Both are right. But one thing saddens me. When I was finance
minister the first time, the volatility of oil prices, and therefore
state resources, cost at least three points of growth in the country.
“We then established a stabilization mechanism and opened an
account for the oil surplus, which posted up to $22 billion. In 2008,
when prices fell from 148 to $ 38 a barrel, no one has heard of Nigeria
because the country was able to tap into this fund. And that, I am very
proud [of].
“When I returned to the department in 2011, there remained only
$4 billion on this account while the price of oil was very high! I
tried again to put money aside. The president agreed, but the governors
did not accept.
“I suffered a lot of attacks from them and now that the country
would really need this account, these same people accuse me of not
having saved! If Nigeria had been more careful, we would not be here
today. It hurts me. We have the mechanism, we had the experience, but we
were prevented to act.”
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