At last Nigerian former Minister of Finance, Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, under ex-presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan respectively has
asserted that she would not serve in the present government of President
Muhammadu Buhari, regardless of the possibility that welcomed.
This revelation was made by Okonjo-Iweala on Monday amid a
system disclosed on Al Jazeera, The Stream.
As indicated by the previous minister, it is ideal to permit
those dealing with the economy now to do as well as could be expected, focusing
on that there could be answers for the present financial decrease in the
nation.
She said, “One of the things you learn as you get wiser is
to talk less as you grow older. I have spent my time contributing to the
country. It will be better to leave those managing the economy to do what they
know how to do. There can be solutions.
“I am not a typical politician. I went in as a technocrat. I
think on the continent we have seen a period when the economy was doing well.
In the last two years, we have been experiencing challenges.
“We need to focus on the basics, which are macro-economics.
You must get the fundamentals like having a stable exchange rate and having
inflation under control. I served my country for seven years and it was a great
honour. The second time was very tough but it is still an honour.
“I am not the only person who is a repository of knowledge.
There are other people who can equally try their hands in running the economy.
I will advice young people not to wait for employment. They should create jobs
to employ six people or more.
“During my time in government, we had a programme called
‘You Win’ designed to support young entrepreneurs.
“The whole idea was to have a business plan competition. The
idea was that they should create jobs. And each created nine to 10 jobs. The
World Bank did an evaluation of it and found it good. I do believe that the
government should come in.
“We started a peer to peer mentoring. Now, one of the things
I want to say is that creating employment is not only about struggles, it is
about managing success.”
Talking on the war against corruption amid the two
administrations in which she served, Okonjo-Iweala stressed that: “It was a
very tough fight. I must thank my team. You don’t do it alone. I had the
support of an economic team in the Ministry of Finance. It was tough because at
the end of the day, you need to have some principles.
“The average life span of a Finance Minister is two years in
a country. No one likes a Finance Minister because it is the business of saying
no. It is very difficult and challenging. It was interesting for me. I wish I
had seen myself as wielding power.
“All I saw was the job because I was seeing myself working
for the country.”
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