Should Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Now Foreign Minister) Resign?

If this is anything to go by, she doesn't like her new position and didn't attend the inauguration either. http://www.thetimesofnigeria.com/in, ask=view&id=824 

All na strategy!

Okonjo-Iweala in the doghouse?

Ochereome Nnanna

IN the past couple of weeks or so, President Olusegun Obasanjo has been preparing himself for the final lap, the home stretch of his eight-year second coming as the chief executive of Nigeria. Quite understandably, he has been offloading his excess baggage, sending home many of his personal aides to go play politics.

Some of them, who were among his numerous busybodies, giving flesh to his political plots, have to go home now that the game is over for real. There were those who were given government jobs to enable them feed their families. Many of these have also been sent home. It is now clear that Obasanjo wants to trot home “lean and mean” as they say in the employment market.

Quite a few of them have been lucky, in that the new shuffles have found for them an opportunity for higher challenges. Apparently to reward Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode for performing excellently the job of the president’s special assistant on insults, Obasanjo has now made him the Minister for Culture and Tourism. The young man told a highly tolerant Senate that he was now a new creature.

It is not clear to me now whether he would return to his old self if Obasanjo should have reasons to call him back to his old role. You know, some people change from old to new and back to old as their job opportunities change. As for Mrs. Chinwe Obaji, the dropped Minister of Education, it would appear that the President does not have a lot of regard for her executive abilities.
 
IT would seem that she could not match the heights other women achievers were able to hit. If there are many positive things that could be said for the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo, one of them is that he gave women more opportunities to prove their worth than any other president in the history of this country, and many of them simply took off and flew into the blues skies. Some birds are eagles. Others are chicken, no doubt.

In the process of repositioning his government, Obasanjo has managed to throw a few square pegs in round holes. Let me start with one of the minor ones, since this is the season of world cup soccer. Yet again, and in keeping with his apparent disdain for sports (though he is a keen sportsman himself who loves to jog, play squash and generally keep fit), Obasanjo sent another strange character to head the Ministry of Youth and Sports. He is Alhaji Bala Bawa Kaoje, who was liaising with the National Assembly for him as a Special Assistant before now. He does this sort of thing (putting the wrong people in the wrong places) you know, and only heavens know why.

THAT was how he sent a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Abba Gana, to be his Senior Adviser on Civil Society, a posting Gana later told an audience he did not understand, as he had never had dealings with people in that area of human endeavour. But still, Gana took the job and stayed there for three years. Why not? If the president was happy to give the job out, who was Gana not to be happy to take it, even if he neither understood nor fancied the entire jaunt? It is clear to me that this culture of putting the wrong people in Sports, for instance, was responsible for Nigeria’s downward slide in that vital area, especially soccer, athletics, boxing and the lot, in the past seven years.

Now we come to the main surprise of this cabinet shuffle. I am sure that when Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala got the news that she had been moved away from the Federal Ministry of Finance, she must have been as consternated as the rest of us. More so, when her new destination is Foreign Affairs. Now, get it right.

We are not saying that the President has no right to move the former Minister of Finance, even if she happened to be Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s foremost international financial icon. We are not implying that Mrs. Nenadi Usman, the former Minister of State, who has now been given full charge of the Finance portfolio, is not fit for the office. If anything, having been a finance Commissioner in Kaduna State and worked closely with Dr. Okonjo-Iweala for three years, there should be nothing in the job she should find too tough to handle.

What we find odd is the rhyme and reason of it all. Why was the move found necessary? Perhaps the main job of reform has been done? If so, why retain her as the Head of the Presidential Economic Team? Then, perhaps, the main job of using her to persuade the creditor nations to grant us debt relief has been achieved? Or, maybe the president noticed a ballooning object and decided to put a prick to it to show he giveth and taketh?

WELL, whatever it is, one thing is clear: Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is in the doghouse. Foreign Affairs, admittedly, has always been occupied by people seen to be close to President Obasanjo, but it is not the most strategic and boisterous of this administration’s ministries. Obasanjo simply dumps people there and does the job himself. During their days, not much was heard of the activities of Alhaji Sule Lamido and Chief Olu Adeniji. Few people ever took notice. Besides, our foreign missions have never had it so bad as in the past seven years, when some of them had to be closed down or starved of operating funds. In spite of that, Obasanjo went ahead to pay his friend, Adeniji, dollar salaries to be in a ministry that was rendered practically irrelevant even in an era of national image repositioning.

The question we now ask is: now that she is going to a ministry (if she will go) where she will not be very useful as in her area of specialisation, are we still going to continue to pay Dr. Okonjo-Iweala her dollar salaries? If the answer is yes, what utility value is it to the nation?
I am in no position to know exactly how the Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is taking this new measure, but something tells me that in her camp, the mood is not that of jubilation.

Specially for Prof. Amucheazi

DURING my recent trip to Awka for the summit of the Anambra League of Professionals, I met my old teacher at the University of Nigeria, Professor Elochukwu Amucheazi in the company of Mr. Chuks Iloegbunam, a former Vanguard columnist who is now the Chief of Staff to Governor Peter Obi. We resolved to sink our differences, which arose over 20 years ago, which I made reference to in an article titled: 'Anambra’s final battle'.

Prof. Amucheazi, a distinguished scholar and former Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), had written to show his displeasure at some of the information contained in that write-up. Now, following our reconciliation, I hereby express deep regrets and apology to my teacher for whatever inconveniences the article brought on him. The merits or demerits of the issue notwithstanding, I wish to assure Professor Amucheazi that even in my moments of guided or misguided misgivings, I still held him in high esteem, for he was one of those who equipped me with the tool of my work today. Thank you, Prof, and let’s meet again soon.

Source: www.vanguardngr.com

 
 

are you sure about the income you stated, I think Ngo's salary is $250,000  annually. where did you get your figures from.

I agree with you.  The $250k salary is per annum and not her monthly emolument. I have made corrections accordingly.  Thank you.

Nice.

That is a good piece of information Seun, I mention something about cross management. You can see the changes that are about to come  in just about a month in the office.

Up Ngo.