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FIGHTING CORRUPTION IS DANGEROUS: THE STORY BEHIND THE HEADLINES BY NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA
Anyone who is looking for an authoritative account of the economic endeavors of the Good luck Jonathan administration would find only a few books as insightful as Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's book Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story behind the Headlines. This book which is an autobiographical account of the experiences of the erstwhile minister of finance presents lucidly the challenges encountered by the Jonathan administration, specifically the finance ministry, in the fight against institutionalized corruption. A careful reading of the book would reveal that it is indeed dangerous to fight corruption in Nigeria and those who choose to do so most have clarity of purpose, firmness of conviction and “staying power “.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s motivation for writing this thought provoking book results from the events following her departure from office with the Jonathan administration in May 2015. These events include among other things, her being “the object of damaging accusations and lies in the media, on the internet, and in a vicious whispering campaign at home (Nigeria) .” she also felt the need to make known “the efforts deployed to fight corruption by the Jonathan administration” and to shed light on the perils, pitfalls, and successes of confronting corruption “ not just in Nigeria but in the world over. These motivations guide Mrs Okonjo-Iweala’s exposition in this 192 pages book published in 2018 by MIT, Canada. “Telling my story is risky “, she writes, “but not telling it is also dangerous. “
The book Fighting Corruption is dangerous is divided into 8 chapters which discuss a wide range of issue, beginning with the heart rendering and nerve wrecking kidnap of Mrs Okonjo-Iweala's 83 years old mother to her recommendations on the necessary steps to take in the fight against corruption. Chapter one which is titled “The intimidation game” presents with unmistakable clarity the bellicosity of those behind corrupt schemes in the country. These people with vested interest as she calls them, would stop at nothing to ensure that they have their way. They attempted to intimidate her out of office by kidnapping her 83 years old mother, what is the old woman’s crime? She (Okonjo-Iweala's mother) is the mother of the finance Minister who has stepped on the toes of powerful men by withholding subsidy. The ransom for Okonjo-Iweala’s mother was not money but the demand for the immediate resignation of the Minister of Finance on television. There was also a failed plot that was meant to ensure that Mrs Okonjo-Iweala leaves office in a wheelchair.
Despite the aforementioned travails, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala pressed on in the fight against corruption. For her, these challenges were indicators that she was on the right track. In the second chapter, “Return to a troubled Country“ , she recalls the events surrounding her return to Nigeria for a second stint as Finance Minister, the first being from 2003-2006. Her first shock was that a group of “concerned” people were against her working for the Jonathan administration and set a representative to dissuade her. In her words, “the conversation left me shaken because it meant that despite the clear result of the election, there was trouble at home. There were people who clearly did not want the newly elected president to succeed and did care about the impact of that on the country.” This experience was definitely just the tip of the iceberg as the events in the succeeding chapter would reveal.
With the obvious leakages in the economic system, Okonjo-Iweala felt the need to confront the oil scammers, part of the result of this confrontation was the ill-timed removal of fuel subsidy on 1st January, 2012. Though Mrs Okonjo-Iweala claims to have been shocked by the announcement as it had been agreed that the public would be enlightened on the need for the fuel subsidy removal before it was done. Fiscal policies were also put in place to transparency in accounting for oil revenues. “Trying to bring transparency and accountability to this (oil) sector was probably one of the most stressful and dangerous tasks of my job as Finance Minister “, she writes.
In chapters four and five, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala captures the difficulties involved in budget approval processes and the international scams that Nigeria would have fallen for if not for the timely intervention of the economic team. The budget approval process in Nigeria is incontrovertibly cumbersome, this is due to the cases of budget padding and excess spending on recurrent items. Consequently Mrs Okonjo-Iweala calls for transparency in Nigeria budget process. Chapter 6 brings to the fore the public service scams that manifest itself in the Ghost workers, Ghost pensioners and other forms of Charade. Through the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System and other initiatives, the finance ministry was able to block, to some extent, the economic leakages caused by this public service scams.
During the Jonathan administration, some persons, antifeminists, also believed that a woman wielded too much power and were as such resistant to some of the ideas brought up by Mrs Okonjo-Iweala. The opposition was even stronger from ethnic jingoists who analyzed every economic policy in terms of ethnic bias. Okonjo-Iweala writes quite despotically, “unfortunately, ethnic divisions are alive and well in Nigeria today. The flames are fanned by politicians who encourage them for their own purposes and by other irresponsible Nigerians who use them to attack any results not in their favor. Just about any policy that affects Nigerians is analyzed from the ethnic angle.” There was also the presence of economic and political ideologues who were suspicious of and detracting her economic policies. These ideologues considered Okonjo-Iweala as the archangel of perpetuating western economic imperialism.
Faced with these daunting challenges one may wonder if the former finance minister was not discouraged, she admits that there were times she felt like giving in. However, due to the corrosive effect of corruption on development and the damage it does to the prospect of poor people and youth, she decided to fight on. She also considers the fight against corruption an issue of personal responsibility. In her words, “I believe that the fight against corruption must start with individuals who choose to take responsibility… corruption must be fought by insiders and from the inside…” it is due to these that she held on the whole time as a finance minister. In my opinion, I believe more and more Nigerians need to take the fight against corruption as a personal responsibility else we would be like the proverbial dog that is all bark and no bite.
The book concludes with practical lessons learned and how anti corruption advocates need to equip themselves. This book is no doubt intriguing from start to finish and while one may not agree with all the details contained in it, it provides impetus for us to raise pertinent questions and fight corruption foot for foot. One thing we can take from this book is that fighting corruption is truly dangerous but corruption is by no means insurmountable. This review is by no means exhaustive, I encourage you to read the book.
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