Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and the
former World Bank official Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was recently interviewed
by Christiane Amanpour CNN’s chief international correspondent and
anchor of Amanpour, a nightly foreign affairs program on CNN
International.
On
the interview which aired yesterday Tuesday 16th April, 2013,
Okonjo-Iweala speaks with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about several issues
touching on corruption, oil theft and Nigeria's power grid problems.
The
Minister who has been lauded as just the kind of reformer that Nigeria
needs, was a runner-up to lead the World Bank and "Forbes" ranked her as
one of the world's most powerful women.
Speaking on the
issue of corruption, Iweala explained that, “Nigeria does have a
problem with corruption, and so do many other countries, including
developed countries. I don't like the fact that when people mention the
name Nigeria, the next thing they say is corruption”.
According
to her, “this is a country of 170 million people; 99.9 percent of them
are honest, hard-working citizens who just want to get on with their
lives and they want a government that delivers for them’.
Okonjo-Iweala
believes technology could be the answer to the problem, “What we've
said is that in order to help block any leakages and help to, you know,
stop any attempts at corruption or taking monies, we must build
electronic platforms. We must distance people from the money”, she
said.
‘These things were recommended by the World Bank
and IMF and we are doing them”, she said. She also strongly believes
that Nigeria lack institutions and processes.
About
what the president is doing on this issue, the Minster explains, “what
President Goodluck Jonathan has done is to call the judiciary, the
legislature and the executive arm for the first time to meet together on
this issue, because it’s not just about government, but about everyone
coming together.
According to her, even if someone is
caught, they go to the courts and they are let off lightly. ‘The
president can't do anything about that. The judicial system also has to
be strengthened’, Legislators also have to crack down. They themselves
have to work at also being transparent and helping the executive”, she
said.
Oil leakage causes a significant drain on the
economy and the Minister puts it at 150,000 barrels stolen a day, which
she admits is huge and that Nigeria cannot afford any leakage. Comparing
the situation to Mexico, which sees tens of thousands of barrels stolen
each day, the Minister further explained the need for the international
community to weigh in to resolve the issue, and the need for Nigerians
to commit to fighting it as well.
According to her,
‘Mexico and Nigeria are suffering from this problem, and in Nigeria’s
case, “we have international people who also buy that stolen oil. We
need them to treat this stolen oil like stolen diamonds, the blood
diamonds. Make it blood oil. Help us so that those people don't have a
market to sell this stuff”, she said.
Speaking On the
issue of electricity, Okonjo-Iweala explained saying, “Nigeria is not
the only country. Almost every developing country has a problem with
power, as you know. India has it, South Africa has it but South Africa
is far better off because they've invested much more’. ‘Many developing
countries, even China is struggling with keeping up with
infrastructure”, she said.
She admits that the
government is not the best place to run the power sector, and that for
the economy to do better, privatization is the best option. “Nigeria is
pursuing one of the most sweeping privatization programs in any country
in the world. We are selling off everything. The generation capacity,
the distribution capacity in the country, government is only retaining
one thing – transmission, she says.
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