The former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and her colleague in the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, may testify before the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel in Abuja on Thursday (today)

The two former ministers, who were influential members of the cabinet of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, will testify in the ongoing investigation into how the administration reportedly spent $16bn on the power sector in eight years without tangible results.

Okonjo-Iweala and Ezekwesili were members of Obasanjo’s Economic Management Team and were among the former top administration officials summoned by the Ndudi Elumelu-led probe panel.

In letters they wrote to the committee, the former ministers indicated their willingness to appear before the committee today and answer questions.

They, however, allegedly gave a condition that as employees of the World Bank, they would not entertain questions concerning the operations of the bank.

Lawyers to Okonjo-Iweala, who is the Managing Director of the World Bank, had earlier last week complained that their client would not be able to appear before the panel on an earlier scheduled date because she was engaged in the bank’s assignments outside Nigeria, offering to appear on a later date.

Ezekwesili, the bank’s Vice-President (Africa), had also written to say that she was away to Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A member of the committee, Mr. Patrick Obahiagbon, confirmed on Wednesday that the two ex-ministers would appear today.

The lawmaker, however, declined comments on the alleged request by the duo not to speak on the World Bank.

The bank contributed loans totaling about $464m to power projects during the Obasanjo era.

In a letter the panel wrote the bank, it requested it to avail the committee with information on who applied for the loans and the purposes for which they were applied.

Okonjo-Iweala, according to the Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Liyel Imoke, was the accounting officer for the National Integrated Power Projects, which gulped about $3.07bn.

Imoke, a former Minister of Power and Steel, had told the panel that Okonjo-Iweala was a member of the presidential committee, which executed the NIPP.

He said that she was made a member of the committee to facilitate the payments for the projects from the Excess Crude Account jointly owned by the three tiers of government.

Long hisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss! Like we need probe to find out where the money went? Ask the otumba and alahai owned banks all over Nigeria and see the money trail leaving the country to offshore accounts under fictitious names!

Useless country!

almondjoy:

Long hisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss! Like we need probe to find out where the money went? Ask the otumba and alahai owned banks all over Nigeria and see the money trail leaving the country to offshore accounts under fictitious names!

Useless country!

Not [b]uselesss [/b]country but useless administrators

It is apparent from the hearing today that the two former female ministers are of the sound intellectual stock that Nigeria needs to realise it's vision of superdom. They outshined all the pot bellied barbarians on the panel although the Chairman is OK. We need people like Pat Utomi and other intellectuals in government.

Lawyers to Okonjo-Iweala, who is the Managing Director of the World Bank, had earlier last week complained that their client would not be able to appear before the panel on an earlier scheduled date because she was engaged in the bank’s assignments outside Nigeria, offering to appear on a later date.

Ezekwesili, the bank’s Vice-President (Africa), had also written to say that she was away to Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

yeah right, they are magically busy when it is time to testify.

Spencer1:

It is apparent from the hearing today that the two former female ministers are of the sound intellectual stock that Nigeria needs to realise it's vision of superdom. They outshined all the pot bellied barbarians on the panel although the Chairman is OK. We need people like Pat Utomi and other intellectuals in government.

They are intellectuals no doubt but I thought Ezekwesili's prescence was unneccesary.

Okonji-Iweala's testimony was revealing though,as it partly proves Obj and the duo of Esther Nenadi and Lyel Imoke, for whatever
reason decided to pass on due process at various junctures and with sums running into billions at stake.

it was necessary for both of them to appear because it has shown esther nenadi has a whole lot of questions to answer as per the contracts that has her signatures