“Nigeria does have a problem with corruption and so do many other countries,” Okonjo-Iweala told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview that aired Tuesday. “I don’t like the fact that when people mention the name Nigeria the next thing they mention is corruption.”

Madam world bank!Is it not so absolutely through tht naija stinks of corruption to the high heavens.

Technology could be the answer the problem, Okonjo-Iweala believes.

“We must build electronic platforms. We must distance people from the money. These things were recommended by the world bank and IMF,” she told Amanpour. “We are doing them.”

Madam world bank this is actually very laudable and the govt needs to fast track the cashless policy propostion as it will go a long way in stemming the tide of embezzlemen and money laundering.However i am dismayed by the govt's apparent snail speed approach to this policy and te private sector seems to be the major targets while those in govt still stael public funds with impunity.

To add to your assertion tht technology can go a long way in curbing our corruption menace,i also want you to note tht for lack of proper identity management of nigerians,anybody can do whatever thy like and neva get caught because crimes can neva be traced to real identities many a times and we have so many faceless crimainals who are having a field day because we cannot properly identify them.
National identity management is very key to our quest of trying to curb corruption in this country.without this we will just be running fools errand on this corruption issue.

President Jonathan is calling for the judiciary, the legislative and the executive arm to meet together about this issue all together for the time first Okonjo-Iweala said.

“Because even if you catch somebody, if they go to courts and they are let off lightly the president can’t do anything about that. The judicial system also has to be strengthened,” she said.

Wht is lacking here is actually the lack of will power on the part of the president to fight corruption headon.All govt is doin is merely paying lip service to fighting this menace.
If the executive stands resolute and ensure thy hav a clean house on their side,i tell you evry1 will seat up.Boty the legislature and the judiciary and to a larger extent the rest of us.

“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,” Okonjo-Iweala said, proudly. “And they want a government that delivers for them.”

Madam! honesty is an abstract phenomenum tht can neva be quantified at any giving time because the predominant force here is circumstances.
Please dont delude yourself into thinking 99% of your compatriots are honest,it is not true,i thnk its the other way round with just 0.5% who can be said to be honest.This is so because the system in nigeria breeds and encourages corruption right from our individual family institution up to the top echelons of govt,we are all corrupt from the micro society which is the individual to the macro which is society at large.This is because our systems operate on corruption.If God himself can attest tht we are all sinners,you will understand tht man is innately selfish by creation and evry man will seek to agrandise self b4 any other thing.It is only when there are strong institutional frameworks to checkmate corruption at all levels tht we can then have people deciding to first be honest because doin otherwise will meet strict sanctions from society.

On tap of that, there is immense oil theft, which Okonjo-Iweala puts at 150,000 barrels stolen a day. She compared the situation to Mexico, which sees tens of thousands of barrels stolen each day.

Lets have true federalism driven by absolute resource control.Let each federating unit control there resouces,that is whatever oil or mineral resource found in your commuinity shuld blong to tht commuinity govt can then tax the people.

If this is done i tell you not a single drop of oil will ever get stolen and the people will derive optimum value from the resources God has bestowed them with because the people will then take personal responsibility in protecting these resources as against wht obtains now where the people are so distant from the value chain.
since its the FG thts taking all the money from these resources then the FG should themselves protect their resources.Its no business of the people.

Nigeria is also plagued by problems with its electrical grid.

When the country’s president last appeared on CNN, he told Amanpour, “That is one area that Nigerians are quite pleased with the government, that’s a commitment to improve power. It’s working. So if you are saying something different, I’m really surprised.”

That interview caused an uproar in Nigeria, with many of the county’s very active social media citizens taking to Twitter and Facebook to voice their frustrations with the power grid and President Jonathan’s comments.

Okonjo-Iweala said the power problems all come down to previous government’s lack of investment.

“If you’ve neglected a sector for that long, you’ve not invested, you’ve not even maintained your basic facilities, it’s not going to happen that fast. It takes time,” she said.

While Nigerians often complain of power outages – telling CNN they often have to use generators to watch the news channel – Okonjo-Iweala maintained there has been improvement.

“That month, when you interviewed the president,” she said, referring to Amanpour’s previous interview of Jonathan, “the polls showed, independently, scientifically that they are in technical partnership with dialogue. That 54 percent of Nigerians felt there was some improvement,” she told Amanpour.

Madam make we talk true light no dey.though i must confess there is a slight improvement in this sector.My fear is how sustainable is this marginal growth and our power reform roadmap how sincere is the govt trying to see it through.

“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. South Africa is far better off because they’ve invested much more.
But many developing countries, even China, they are struggling with keeping up with infrastructure,” she said.

I always wondered why its always the negative things in other countries our govt always try to compare us with. why cant we compare ourselves with the positives like the economies of thses countries,security,good governance,patriotism and all the things this countries are doin well far beta than us.

ewet:
I always wondered why its always the negative things in other countries our govt always try to compare us with. why cant we compare ourselves with the positives like the economies of thses countries,security,good governance,patriotism and all the things this countries are doin well far beta than us.

She was asked a question and she replied exactly the way she was supposed to reply. If India, China, Brazil, etc ALL experience power cuts on a daily basis just like Nigeria, why should Nigeria be singled out as if it's the only country with power issues? You should not allow your country to be painted in a worse light than other countries with the same problems, or you are a BIG FOOL.

Rossikk:

She was asked a question and she replied exactly the way she was supposed to reply. If India, China, Brazil, etc ALL experience power cuts on a daily basis just like Nigeria, why should Nigeria be singled out as if it's the only country with power issues? You should not allow your country to be painted in a worse light than other countries with the same problems, or you are a BIG FOOL.

But they did not ask her about other countries, the question was about Nigeria, she distracted with other countries because she didn't have any credible answers to give about Nigeria, she could not state exactly what steps they have taken to address our problems. There was just no cards to play so she lied and goofed around.

Governance is about doing the work and coming up with solutions, not siting on your asss and lie, divert and point fingers.

The CNN was lenient with her because she didn't grill her with follow up questions to make her confine her answers to Nigeria.

Ngozi was right, 99.9% of Nigerians are honest and if you know that you are not, Kindly Like this page and put down your name afterwards.

I am honest, what about you?

Igwe.:
Ngozi was right, 99.9% of Nigerians are honest and if you know that you are not, Kindly Like this page and put down your name afterwards.

I am honest, what about you?

Means you are not honest...

Rossikk:

She was asked a question and she replied exactly the way she was supposed to reply. If India, China, Brazil, etc ALL experience power cuts on a daily basis just like Nigeria, why should Nigeria be singled out as if it's the only country with power issues? You should not allow your country to be painted in a worse light than other countries with the same problems, or you are a BIG FOOL.

Abegi go siddon.this countries you mentioned are far ahead of us in electricity generation,can you compare their population with ours and yet thy have upto 90% capacity.Its a lazy approach to tackling devt issues,so because those ones have problems with theirs we shuld console ourselves with the fact tht uninteruptible power supply is an illusion. exactly wht i was talking abt, why shuld we be comparing ourselves with countries tht cant provide sufficient electricity for their people.why cant we associate with those who can and are even 3rd world like us.qatar,u.a.e,singapore,egpyt name it there are so many b
of them doin well in this area.

This Amanpour sef. What's her problem? D way she embarrass GEJ never do her? Everybody knows d Nigerian situation. What did she expect Okonjo 2 say? That Jona is a drunk & speaks thru a bottle 95% of d time? Or that all most pple in power r concerned about is draining d nation dry? Abeg! I think she has it in 4 us. U can hear d glee in her voice when she's backed them into a corner & they lie.

Prof to be sincere with you, I was waiting to hear your view on the presidential pardon. Christiane had a reason for asking that question. Why avoid the implied meaning?It wasn't ask for you to talk about 99.9 percent of Nigerians that are not corrupt, rather to tell us if 0.01 percent of its leaders are also clean.

1st to comment

She presented herself well tho, I give her that.

The Anampour chic thought she could manipulate Ngozi with her typical "African is backwards" interview style.

Oprah said most Nigerians are scammers, you guys vexed.

Ngozi said 99% (most) of Nigerians are honest bla blayou guys vexed.

Seriously, what do you want?

You want her to affirm Oprah's view?

liberty300: I stay in enugu and I say, yes, power has improved. She is a patriotic nigerian and defends nigeria's and nigerian interest. She told no lie in that interview she granted. If she did, pls point it out..

Oh, u stay in Enugu right.......?

Hmmmn..... didnt yall give GEJ like 99.8% of ur votes last time? Wait, wait, wait.... em.... isnt that the same state where the Governor's been AWOL for like 6months or so then told the citizenry to STFU and not question why he wasnt doing the job he was hired to do?

Umm Rumy: This Amanpour sef. What's her problem? D way she embarrass GEJ never do her? Everybody knows d Nigerian situation. What did she expect Okonjo 2 say? That Jona is a drunk & speaks thru a bottle 95% of d time? Or that all most pple in power r concerned about is draining d nation dry? Abeg! I think she has it in 4 us. U can hear d glee in her voice when she's backed them into a corner & they lie.

Lmaooooo

For some reason Amanpour cares about Nigeria and is obviously miffed (like most Westerners) as to why almost 200million people are so foolish and cant take their destiny into their own hands and ensure that only competent individuals (that can make their lives better) rule them.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue. When a leader refused to confess negative things about his beloved country, it shows that she is a good leader, the Bible says ;calling those things that were not in existence as if they are existing, and as you have said to the whole world, I believe you Madam. It shall be so In Jesus Name. You are a Good leader.

God bless you.

God2man.

This lady is too much! She never denied the facts.she says the truth and gives hope of better days ahead.she talks presidential.I wish we can have more people like her run the affairs of government. We can only sustain what this government has started. Nigeria is too corrupt to transform in a day. I think she has a good understanding of the problem and is offering the best of solutions. Time, and more time of steady progress is what we need. If you bring other set of people by 2015, you would be taking us backwards.

there are reason why Ngozi iweala has failed for nearly 10 years to turn the nigeria economy around.

I believe I can turn around the economy. why because i know that economy more than Ngozi iweala.. If you give me $10 millions .. In 18 month taken the money to nigeria.. I will give you.. back your $20 million.. this is how much i know the nigeria economy.. I know what to invest in to get my money back in 18 month..

It is a virgin economy.. Unlike many economy in the world. which are not.. why ngozi iweala have not been able to turn around the economy.. is the same reason.. Sanusi is seen by some to have failed in banking. the reason is.. You see sanusi will perform 90% better as the Centre bank governor of the north than as centre bank Governor of Nigeria.

look 99.9% of Yoruba want the aviation minister fired .. while because many believe she is bias. she will be a better aviation minister of the east than of Nigeria..

When she makes policy she makes policy to please her people.. It is the same with Goodluck Jonathan.. Many Yorubas want Goodluck fired because when Goodluck jonathan makes policy.. he makes bias policy in favour of his people..

Even while he may not be a good president of Nigeria.. He may end up been a good president of the East.. because if he is running bias policy in favour of his people.

she better go and ask for God forgiveness.

Most people dont understand English, this woman has said it all, she admitted Nigeria has a problem with corruption etc, but she strongly believes we can all fight it together, she is intelligent, she told CNN that the so called USA, are the ones buying oil from oil theft, i see her a sincere woman.

eforce01: . i like how she cleverly avoided the alamiseya's pardon question, she just started talking and diverting the interview. Loyal to her oga@ the top .

she is lucky it wasnt a nigerian journalist that interviewed her,they would have yanked the answer from her by fire by force,she no fit dodge

God2man: Death and life are in the power of the tongue. When a leader refused to confess negative things about his beloved country, it shows that she is a good leader, the Bible says ;calling those things that were not in existence as if they are existing, and as you have said to the whole world, I believe you Madam. It shall be so In Jesus Name. You are a Good leader.

God bless you.

God2man.

Soooooo.........

Your own Bible advices you to be a bloody, stinking, devilish, unrepentant liar?

In4matic: so if light has improved in one small neighborhood does that mean light has improved in the whole country? or are some NLers daft?

Was Rome built a day?
Ur talking of 170million ppl fa!

I dont see anything wrong with her answers. She said the truth and admitted to the problems of Nigeria. We need people like her.

paparazzi1987: “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,” Okonjo-Iweala said, proudly. “And they want a government that delivers for them.”

and some amala blocked brain wil say she lied. I love that woman very inteligent. She answered her questioned diplomaticaly. Some fool just want her to critisise the government. We have been critisisinh the government for over 3 decade now, still yet nothing have change. I have decided to change my mind set.

After watching the interview I finally realised that Nigeria has a major problem. We keep saying the military, the military in a few year the number of year under military will be equal to the number of years we have spent under democracy.

They've started using the excuse since 1999. My father was working at the PTI when the warri refinery was built. It was completed in 16 months though the expected delivery date was 18 months. we have spent almost 16 year fixing those refinery. Who are we fooling! It does not take a decade to fix any problem no matter how bad the situation is. Obasanjo spent 8 years - Yaradua/jonathan another 8 years. 16 years and not a single problem we had before 1999 has been fixed seriously!

Please give me one good reason why you should not be corrupt in the present situation in Nigeria.

Madam Coordinating Minister has been there almost through these two regimes. THAT HAVE FAILED WOEFULLY!