Okonjo Iweala        Photo courtesy

Reading that Yale University Conferred a Honorary Doctorate on Okonjo-Iweala was no problem to me. What bothered me most was the reason given for the award.  Yale, one of USA`s most prestigious institutions of higher learning had previously awarded such an honour to the Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Quoting Premium Times ltd, the President of Yale University, Peter Salovey, described okonjo iweala as “a brilliant reformer and dedicated public servant, who has spearheaded efforts to stabilize and grow Nigeria’s economy, battling widespread government corruption and creating greater fiscal transparency and discipline.”  Further to her recognition, Yale said that she focused on building solid foundations and institutions critical for the survival and sustenance of the Nigeria economy, apart from bravely fighting corruption in governance.
 
The methodology Yale University used in arriving at the above conclusion gives me a course for concern. Either the university does not know the current situation in Nigeria or it chooses to distort facts. On spearheading efforts to stabilize and grow Nigeria’s economy, Yale University may be right in its own thinking and standard of judgment. May I remind the university that he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches. Many, just like Yale University, are quick to justify the health of Nigeria based on the country’s rebased economy. The rebasing took our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to about $432 billion compared to that of South Africa which stood at $370 billion at the end of 2013 making Nigeria the biggest economy in Africa.
 
Has Yale University asked what happened afterward?  At the moment, the biggest economy spearheaded by Okonjo Iweala has collapsed. Both federal and state governments cannot pay salaries and never in the history of Nigeria has the currency depreciated as we saw under Okonjo Iweala. It is important for Yale to recall that Nigeria’s 2015 national budget was branded an ‘austerity’ measure, and this came as a result of the fall in oil price and external borrowing as an option to save the state from collapse. At the moment, Nigeria’s official debts stand at 60bn USD.   While abandoned capital projects in Nigeria that need to be completed are estimated to be over 50 billion USD. Let’s remind Yale university, Nigeria cannot do magic to save the economic crisis Okonjo Iweala is leaving, but to undertake drastic and painful structural adjustments to save the economy from collapse. 
 
Does Yale University know that Okonjo Iweala confessed she had not done well in managing and coordinating Nigeria’s economy? The country is raising its borrowing level from N570 billion to N882 billion to enable it meet its financial obligations, particularly paying workers’ salaries and paying contractors.  Affirming the economic crisis Nigerian states faces, the National Assembly had described the 2015 budget as unrealistic.
 
For my friends in Yale University, please note, Okonjo Iweala met Nigeria at 29% poverty rate and she is leaving the country at the 69% rate. We are still contending the National Bureau of Statistics’ sudden reversal of Nigeria’s unemployment rate from 71% to 6.4%. Also, I think Yale University needs to commission a study on the Nigeria subsidy regime spearheaded by its award winning hero Okonjo Iweala. I am sure findings from this study will help the university in understanding the impact of Okonjo Iweala in battling widespread government corruption and creating greater fiscal transparency and discipline in Nigeria.
 
May I refer Yale University to the House of Representative Report of the Ad-Hoc Committee to Verify and Determine the Actual Subsidy Requirements and Monitor the Implementation of the Subsidy Regime in Nigeria. House Resolution No. (HR.1/2012) Laid. The report covered 2009-2011. In that report, before Okonjo Iweala took over as the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minster of Nigeria’s economy, N261.1 billion was expended in subsidy in 2006, N278.8billion in 2007 and N346.7billion in 2008. Yale University must note that five companies including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation were involved in Managing the subsidy in 2006; they rose to ten companies in 2007 and 19 in 2008. Less than a year of Okonjo Iweala’s regime, 121 companies were added in the subsidy management bringing the total to 140 companies in 2011. It was the regime of Okonjo Iweala that entrenched corruption such as inflation, proxy marketers, over invoicing and non-record keeping became common in the subsidy business leading to the present hardship we are in today.
 
In January 8, 2012, addressing Nigerians on why they should support subsidy removal, Okonjo Iweala argued that Nigerians would derive clear and measurable benefits from the removal of subsidy such as construction, completion and rehabilitation of rail, refineries, key federal highways, hydro stations, information technology and water projects etc. she further said that the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme SURE-P which was savings from the subsidy removal would provide for mass transit, public works, training in artisanship for unskilled youth and social services, health care. On specifics however, she said that the government would make available 1,600 buses to remedy the consequence of subsidy removal. 
 
At the moment there is no efficient railway in Nigeria, neither new refinery nor new ones were built. The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme SURE-P has lots of scam and the scheme has since ceased to exist. Christopher Kolade who was the SURE-P chairman resigned as a result of entrenched corruption that characterized the scheme. Nigerians keep saying that there is nothing to show for SURE-P.
 
Nigeria the 6th largest producer of crude is facing acute petrol scarcity; a litre of petrol goes for N350, N250, N200, N150, N130, and N120 respectively depending on the location you are buying from. In Abuja, car owners sleep in filling stations to buy petrol. Confirmation of the availability of petrol in filling stations is by the long queue of cars waiting to buy petrol. Selling petrol in gallons on the streets (black market) which the state frowns at and sees as illegal has since been legalized as the only sure way of buying petrol in Abuja and other major cities in Nigeria. As the scarcity lingers and the masses continue to suffer, Okonjo Iweala cannot end the petrol scarcity and the crisis created by the very economy she coordinated. The marketers are owed at about N200 billion. Never in the history of Nigeria has this happened. The former Nigeria Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was sacked for daring to expose the monumental corruption in NNPC. Okonjo Iweala is yet to give account of the missing 20 billion USD under her watch as the Minister of finance and coordinating Minister of Nigeria economy.
 
May we remind Yale University, in power generation; Nigeria had 4,500 megawatts (MW) daily in 2007 when Okonjo Iweala was not in charge. Despite the privatization of power spearheaded by Okonjo Iweala which was seen as solution to Nigeria’s power generation, as at May, 2015 Nigeria’s power generation dropped to 1,327 megawatts.  What is 1,327 megawatts used for in a country of 170 million people that are in desperate need of economic diversification?
 
Lest Yale University forgets, in 2007, Nigeria’s foreign reserve was 47 billion USD. At the moment Nigeria has at about 60 billion USD debts and the foreign reserve depleted to almost zero account. Nigeria Excess Crude Account in 2007 was 24 billion USD; at the moment state governors argue the account is empty. Yale’s inability to make reference to firm socio-economic substructure, a functional industrial foundation, and a stable self-regulatory policy which Okonjo Iweala could not establish during her reign as the Finance and Coordinating Minister of economy further exposes the university’s illusion and lack of understanding of Nigeria’s  current realities. It is embarrassing that Yale University which has trained intellectuals on the area of political economy and development studies could not reappraise Nigeria’s economic realities before arriving at such statement.  

Nigeria must have an alternative crop of elite with alternative perspectives in order to build solid foundation and institutions critical for the survival and sustenance of her economy. Thank God most of us live in Nigeria and do not need class room lectures to understand the situation. Having examined Nigeria’s economic realities and the challenges she is going to face at Iweala’s exit, Yale University grossly goofed, not by giving Okonjo Iweala an award, but by grossly misrepresenting her performance. 

By Audu Liberty Oseni
[email protected]
Abuja, Nigeria.