BETWEEN DR. OBI EZEKWESILI AND DR. NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA.

What a man can do, a woman can do better. This axiom is as old as western education and its influence into our culture. It is not part of our culture or saying.

What obtained in our local parlance was that what a woman can do, another woman can do better under the same conditions. Probably, it would be out of place to judge Dr. Obi Ezekwesili along side Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala – as it relates to their utterances and by extension their contribution to national development – because whereas one is currently deep in the present administration, one is out of it or indirectly in it. But it might also make sense to judge them at least from the perspective that both of them represent, directly or indirectly, the American induced and controlled World Bank and IMF.

What I intend to do here is to bring out just a few quotes and assertions from both woman of substance and leave Nigerians to judge who is better connected to them and who is not – out of the two of them. This will be a safer way of not being accused as a bad judge.

Recently on the nagging issue of “oil subsidy” removal, Dr. Obi Ezekwesili was quoted as saying that "Government needs to focus on the supply side. The supply structure of fuel needs urgent attention of the government. First of all, in tackling the issue of fuel in the country, the government should be able to address the supply of fuel. That is all I can say on this at the moment."

On the other hand, Dr Okonjo-Iweala who doubles as Dr. President Jonathan’s Finance Minister and co-coordinating minister of our economy told people recently, as published by LEADERSHIP, and various other news media that the oil subsidy removal “…will create a balance in the system”. I do not really understand the balance she is talking about. Is she referring to the balance on corruption or the balance on reactivating the refineries or building new ones?

She further informed that “… federal government had set aside funds to stimulate the youth entrepreneurs’ project including “the YouWin project” stressing that “We need every means we can use to tackle unemployment in this country.”

From the foregoing, Dr. Ezekwesili diplomatically advised that “oil subsidy” removal is not the issue while the master of our economy thinks it is the issue but she does not believe that corruption can be fought in any other way than “oil subsidy” removal. I would rather leave readers to make case with just those assertions and see out of these two amazons who is more connected to the realities of the Nigerian economy.

But we discover that this is the second time Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is playing a major role in our national economic and financial matters. Her first coming was during Chief Obasanjo’s administration when she succeeded in paying her masters 12 billion dollars at a swoop from our national reserve. The same theorems she propounded during that era has not yet yielded any job creation and we are being made to take more theorem. The question one may ask is why should these theorems not be served the civilized economies that crashed and are still crashing left and right? The Nigerian problem with investors not streaming into our country, if Dr. Okonjo-Iweala will care to know, is that of corruption which powers all other social maladies.

It is corruption that has made our three or four refineries not to produce at installed capacity. It is corruption that has made our power system not to function. It is corruption that has held down our educational system. Corruption is responsible for the collapse of our air and rail transport systems just as the road. It is corruption that has made it impossible for the likes of Michelin and other multinationals to drone out of our economies to neighboring countries. It is corruption that has made Ajaokwuta steel not take off since all the huge amount of money invested in it.

It is corruption that has created the image known and called “oil subsidy”. So let corruption be tackled first and all other associated socio-political problems will naturally go with it. This is simpler that those hyper economic theories as is being propounded by the honorable coordinating minister of our economy and Minister of Finance. So for as long as corruption is not tackled head on, so will there be one subsidy notion or another and the nation will get to a breaking point in the processing of pursuing virtual subsidy removal.

If we had allowed Dr. Ezekwesili an opportunity this time around – to man our economy, maybe she would have advised President Jonathan against this cancerous growth trying to spread into full blown destruction. Or could she have coalesced? One wonders if there is anything that beclouds human being s – mostly Nigerians – when once they find themselves in corridors of power.

Another point here is that it is possible that when you get employment in these Breton woods organizations you are still allowed to be whom you want to be. Or does some of our government people’s reaction have anything to do with the schools they attended? But school issue is out place because our own president told us he went to school without school sandal and bag for his books. This does not suggest he went to Cambridge or London school of Economics or anything like that.

But this will become evident if Dr. Obi Ezekwesili still holds her views on our economic matters and still retains her job in the World Bank. Time will tell and let the Nigerian media be in the vanguard of educating and informing Nigerians properly in the true situation in the land and not just report verbatim whatever is suggested by a few inordinate and selfish establishment people.

Chris Onyishi (ctekchris@yahoo.com)

Abuja, Nigeria.