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Okonjo-Iweala restates positive steps against corruption
By Greg Obong-Oshotse
Europe &
North America Editor
(London) and Onche Odeh (Lagos)
Sequel to the
recent rating of Nigeria by Transparency International (TI), Finance Minister
Okonjo-Iweala has stressed that emphasis should be on the various reforms
agenda of the government and not what obtained in the past, especially with
regards to the bad image of corruption.
The minister, who
was speaking on CNN on Tuesday, acknowledged that the task of wiping out
corruption in the country is an uphill one, given its level of entrenchment.
She explained
that corruption rose to the present abysmal level because of the long years of
military rule when the people really had no voice.
On the TI report
and how it is perceived by Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala said: “The important
thing is to get away from the mindset of the past. We must think of the reforms
that we are doing now. The reforms are working. …We are moving on. That
is the message and not what happened in the past”.
She also spoke on
President Olusegun Obasanjo’s anti-corruption crusade, stressing that
revenues that accrue to government coffers from oil have always been made
public for transparency and that all tiers of government make public what they
receive each month “so that people could see and ask questions where
necessary”.
Okonjo-Iweala,
who two weeks ago was named one of TIME’s Heroes for 2004, has dedicated
her latest distinction to the Nigerian people and government.
She also gave a
quick assurance that a social safety net is being worked out to cushion
Nigerians against the hardships of deregulation, while warning against giving
way to cynicism and vested interests opposed to reforms.
“This award
is not about me. It is about the Nigerian people. It is about the reform. It is
about what the President is trying to achieve,” she said in a private
interview in London on Tuesday, adding: “This is saying to us, ‘we
hear you’re doing things differently, we want to support you.’ And
that’s the light in which it should be seen”.
Okonjo-Iweala, an
international high flier in her own right, was one of 29 Heroes elected by TIME
magazine a couple of weeks ago in its 2004 edition of the award, earning the
distinction of being the only Nigerian and one of only four elected from
outside Europe.
Speaking against
a background of the recent strike over petrol price increases, she acknowledged
that people are angry but said the consistent failure of previous governments
is to blame.
“First of
all, it is understandable that people are upset in Nigeria. The unfortunate
thing we are battling with today is that people’s upset is not to do with
just what happened today. It is all the accumulated anger of years and years of
distrust of government.
“Repeatedly,
governments had promised people things and did not deliver, particularly when
we were under the military.”
The minister
urged Labour leaders to embrace dialogue and for all to avoid extreme
positions. “We need to sit and dialogue with them and then explain where
we are going. But we shouldn’t get into antagonistic positions where
Labour says it must be this way and government says it must be that way and
then the two dig in. No, we should dialogue and come to a compromise for the
good of the people”.
She argued that
the way out of the woods is full deregulation so that the private sector can
play its traditional role as prime movers of the economy in a capitalist
setting.
Her words:
“We need to find a way to let the private sector get into this. As long
as it’s controlled by government, you are not going to get the kind of
services you want. What we have not been very good at explaining to the
ordinary Nigerian is that we are trying to get government out and the only way,
the private sector has repeatedly told us, is to fully deregulate”.
According to
Okonjo-Iweala, the government is looking into hardship arising from
deregulation. “That’s what the committee put up by Mr. President is
doing, trying to find a social safety net: something that can take care of
pensioners in a better way, something that can target young people who are not
employed and put some micro-credit in the hands of university graduates so they
can start their own businesses; something that can put micro-credit in the
hands of women, many of whom are entrepreneurs, who are struggling to make it,
something that can allow communities to do community projects that can benefit
them”.
But she warned
darkly that there are “vested interests” and “forces of darkness”
opposed to reform because they want the old order to remain so that they can
continue to profit by it to the collective sorrow and loss of the country.
“There are
people there who just want things to continue in the same old way that they
were. The future of the country is actually at stake. If we allow these forces
of darkness to overwhelm us and to control us and to be the mouthpiece of the
country, then we would be lost. We will not allow them to make us
discouraged”.
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