This three individuals ( Okonjo, Dora and Soludo ) have done remarkable things in the history of Nigeria.

The problem with Nigeria is inability to sustain a remarkable development which if sustain will make a lasting changes in every sectors of our economic and make our nation Nigeria the envy among other countries of the world but do to nepotism, tribalism and favouritism Nigeria has being continue to move backward instead of moving in right direction and this bring me to three remarkable reforms done by three Igbos professionalist. This three individuals created a lasting changes that we still enjoyed as a nation today not minding how there ethnic groups where they come from has been marginalised by many successive Nigeria government .

Okonjo Iweala.
During her 25 years at the World Bank, she is credited with spearheading several initiatives to assist low-income countries, in particular raising nearly $50bn in 2010 from donors for the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's fund for the poorest countries.
But it is her reform agenda in Nigeria in which she takes real pride - especially the two times she served as the country's finance minister under Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan.
Ms Okonjo-Iweala gave up her job at the World Bank to work as Nigerian finance minister
One of her greatest achievements was leading a team which negotiated a whopping $18bn debt write-off in 2005 for the country, helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign debt rating.
The country's debts had dated back to the early 1980s, and had ballooned to more than $35bn due to penalties and late fees during the 1990s.
Her economic reforms had a far-reaching impact and saved Nigeria at a critical period, according to prominent Nigerian economist, Bismarck Rewane.
This included de-linking the budget from the oil price, allowing the country to save money in a special account when oil prices were high.
"It was this buffer that ensured Nigeria's economy survived between 2008 and 2009," Mr Rewane told the BBC.
Ms Okonjo-Iweala had given up a well-paid job at the World Bank and left her family in Washington, where her husband works as a neurosurgeon, to work in Nigeria, where unlike other ministers she did not have a large domestic staff or fleet of cars.

Professor Akunyili had occupied the position of NAFDAC's director for seven years and, during that time, managed to reduce Nigeria's incidence of fake drugs by about 90%.

With a population of 170 million, Professor Akunyili has undoubtedly saved many lives in Nigeria from what she termed medical 'mass murder'.

Akunyili's own diabetic sister, Vivian, died in her mid-20s from taking fake insulin. In a 2006 speech entitled, Women Leadership in Emerging Democracy – My NAFDAC Experience, she criticised the fake drug industry, calling it “terrorism” and “mass murder”. To sell chalk in place of antibiotics, powder in place of anti-malaria drugs, or unsterilized water in place of adrenalin is clearly to sell death in return for profit.

Death threats

Unsurprisingly, during her reign as the director of NAFDAC, Akunyili faced death threats against herself, her family, and her staff. Those operating the fake drug industry later took it a step further and attempted to murder her in 2003.

"My car was shot from behind on 26 December 2003” she told the BBC.

“The bullet went through my headscarf and passed through the windscreen of the car, leaving my hair burnt.

When the drug counterfeiters heard I might be quitting the job they started popping champagne in Onitsha market, rejoicing that this wicked woman would soon quit the scene."

"But I felt if I left the job that would be victory for the drug counterfeiters," she said.


Soludo’s reforms started soon after he was appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in May 2004, when he moved to consolidate the country’s creaking banking system. Widely recognized as being unfit to finance the country’s desired transformation into a leading economy, the banking sector was an obvious place to begin his reforms.

“Confidence in the system was very low,” Soludo recalls. “All the banks put together were smaller than the fourth-largest bank in South Africa, and none of them was in the top 1,000 banks in the world.1 If any private sector entity needed a loan of US$500m, it had to syndicate it from all the banks put together – or go abroad.”

In fact, Nigeria’s total banking sector assets amounted to less than 20% of GDP at the time, and bank loans were about 4% of the country’s GDP. “Talk about a private sector-led economy was simply a slogan, as there was no financial system to power that,” says Soludo. “We came to the conclusion that the system needed to be brought down and recreated from scratch.”

Creative destruction

The result was a huge practical exercise in creative destruction. On 6 July 2004, barely a month after he had assumed office, Soludo announced a 13-point agenda to commence the banking revolution. The agenda included raising banks’ total capitalization from about $15m to $200m. This was to be completed within 18 months for both foreign and domestic banks in Nigeria. The plan was ultimately to unlock huge deposits trapped in insolvent banks.

The reforms targeted 89 fragile, largely family-owned banks, of which 16 were in a precarious state. The consolidation of the banks through a process of mergers and acquisitions involved risk management and risk-based supervision, as well as new corporate governance standards, and featured zero tolerance for any violations of the process.

“Nigeria had never experienced a policy revolution of that magnitude,” says Soludo. “There was uproar, and the opposition by vested interests was gargantuan. Even an arm of the national Parliament, the Senate, passed two laws to scuttle the consolidation, and I received 21 written threats to my life and the lives of my family.

“You can imagine the political pressures,” he continues. “Banks are not owned by the poor people in the street. Their owners are some of the most politically connected and powerful people in society. Some of my close friends also had significant stakes in the banks. The pressures were immense and intense, but we had a job to do.” In a country such as Nigeria, this commitment to seeing the job through required extraordinary courage.

No Individual from any tribe in the History of Nigeria who have done such remarkable economic transformation with little power as minister, Director and CBN governor. This show that if actually Igbo man or woman is given a chance to be president Nigeria will see alot of transformation.

Fair analysis

jlinkd78:
Fair analysis

Thank you.

You are not far from the truth.