Fresh facts have emerged as to why current finance minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala was fired by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Okonjo-Iweala who was top shot at the World Bank but returned to assume duties as substantive finance minister under President Goodluck Jonathan, was curiously removed by Obasanjo as finance minister and redeployed to the foreign Affairs ministry for undisclosed reasons.

She is currently tagged the ” supervisory ” minister by President Goodluck Jonathan, a title that has put permanent frowns on the faces of her colleagues who feel the elevation was unnecessary.

Okonjo-Iweala negotiated a landmark deal in which the Paris Club of rich sovereign creditors wrote off USD 18 billion of debt Africa’s largest debt cancellation. Nigeria then usedwindfall earnings from oil exports to pay off another USD 12 billion in debts and arrears.

However the figure of $34 billion in foreign put forward in 2006 by her office and that of the former Governor of Central Bank, Charles Soludo was disputed by Senator Farouk Bello Munza who maintained that the figure was about $9 billion.

Shortly after she was removed as minister, Obasanjo relieved her as chairman of his economic think tank.

But in a chat with newsmen in Abuja, former presidential candidate for the Peoples Mandate Party (PMP), Dr Batos Nwadike insisted Obasanjo fired Okonjo- Iweala because of the debt buy back deal. He said further that even though the deal appeared legitimate, there were some moral questions that cast doubt on the intentions of the former minister .

According him, even though Obasanjo saw her as the one with the magic wand, the former President was upset when he discovered went happened in the back room.

Nwadike maintained that Obasanjo discovered that the firm that brokered the $12 Billion debt buy back deal had links with Okonjo Iweala . He alleged that ex minister’s sibling was a a top official of the firm, which got about $2 Billion as commission from the deal.

He said ” Why was she removed. Of course there was a commission in that deal. There was a company that facilitated the deal, and of course people know the owners of the company. This woman had collected her salaries in dollars. About $2billion was paid as commission to the company that facilitated that debt buy back. The company is owned by her siblings..it’s not a secret no more.If you check the records of the Paris Club and World Bank you will find the owners.”

Nwadike who took shots at the proposed six year single tenure continued “ Some can say it was legitimate, but I don’t think so. I think it smacks of corruption. One of the magic wand she came with was to pay back the debt arguing that we were paying so much in interest , therefore okay to just pay back. President Obasanjo bought into it, and decided to pay back. Was not strategic to pay all back. Her siblings are part owners of the the company that brokered the deal. Of course something must have accrued to her.”

The former presidential candidate who also condemned the sacking of the former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salamai, said ” Obasanjo got angry because the way he celebrated her was amazing because he believed she had the magic wand. Why was she reassigned. Obasanjo got pissed off when he smelt corruption, no need changing his winning team. She was winning by paying back. It was celebrated. So why the sudden change of mind. he will tell us someday, and I will vindicated . When She was removed as chairman of the economic team , she left. Knew the game was up. She benefited from the deal, and Obasanjo found out…they got 10 per cent.
http://bioreports.net/news/revealed-obasanjo-sacked-okonjo-iweala-as-finance-minister-because-of-kick-backs-over-paris-club-debt-deal/

Where We Came From

Since its founding in 2001, CGD has earned a reputation as a "think and do" tank, where independent research is channeled into practical policy proposals that help to shape decisions in Washington, other rich-country capitals, and the international financial institutions.

We have put on the global agenda—and sometimes helped to drive to implementation—proposals to accelerate vaccine development; to permit migration as a tool in disaster recovery; to write down $36 billion in Nigerian debt; to make the World Bank more effective, accountable, and legitimate; and to create a new international institution for independent evaluation of poverty-reduction efforts.

CGD was founded in November 2001 by Edward Scott Jr., C. Fred Bergsten, and Nancy Birdsall. A technology entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former senior US government official, Ed Scott provided the vision and a significant financial commitment that made the creation of the Center possible. Fred Bergsten, the director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, lent his formidable reputation in academic and policy circles and provided the fledgling Center with a roof and logistical support within the Peterson Institute for the Center’s initial months of operation. Nancy Birdsall, a former head of the World Bank research department and executive vice president of the Inter-American Development Bank, became CGD’s first president. Her intellectual leadership and rare combination of being both hard-headed and soft-hearted about development attracted a cadre of researchers and other professionals who are deeply dedicated to CGD’s mission.

CGD’s three founders perceived a growing need for independent research to generate practical, creative solutions to the challenges that global interdependence poses to the developing countries, starting with debt. Delivering on Debt Relief: From IMF Gold to a New Aid Architecture (CGD, 2004), by Birdsall and John Williamson, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute, was the Center’s first book.
http://www.cgdev.org/page/about-cgd

The second element obtaining IDA only status was needed solely for the purpose of meeting the Paris Club requirement for Naples terms or other deep discount debt relief. With the creative help of CGD, Nigeria achieved the change to IDA - only status in mid 2005, which helped to lay the ground work for another key element, also with the help of CGD – a discounted buy-back.
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/polisci/sites/www.sas.upenn.edu.polisci/files/TC_Nigeria_short.pdf

Board of Directors


CGD's Board of Directors is composed of prominent individuals from the public and private sectors with a passionate commitment to development. The Board meets once a year to review the Center’s activities and finances and to provide advice and counsel to the President. A subset of the Board, the Executive Committee, meets quarterly to provide ongoing oversight. The Board is responsible for the overall control of the Center’s property, funds, and affairs.

Edward Scott
Founder, BEA Systems, Inc.; Co-Founder and Chair, Center for Global Development; Co-Founder, DATA (Debt, Aid and Trade for Africa); Founder and Chairman, Friends of the Global Fight

Timothy D. Adams
President and Chief Executive Officer, Institute of International Finance

Q. Munir Alam
Managing Member of Watershed Asset Management LLC

C. Fred Bergsten
Co-Founder, Center for Global Development; Director, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, 1977-81

Nancy Birdsall
President and Co-Founder, Center for Global Development; former Executive Vice-President, Inter-American Development Bank

Henrietta Holsman Fore
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Holsman International

David Gergen
Director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University; Editor-at-Large at U.S. News and World Report; Former advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton

Thomas R. Gibian
Chairman and founding partner, Emerging Capital Partners

David F. Gordon
Head of Research and Director of Global Macro Analysis, Eurasia Group

C. Boyden Gray
Former Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy Diplomacy and former Special Envoy for European Union Affairs

Brad Horwitz
Founder, President and CEO, Trilogy International Partners

Enrique V. Iglesias
Ibero-American General Secretary, former President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Kassahun Kebede
Founder and Managing Partner of Panton Capital Group; President and Chairman of the Board of the Fistula Foundation; former head of Global Equity Derivatives at Deutsche Bank

Susan B. Levine
Managing Director at Ramius/RCG Longview

David Lindauer (ex officio)
Stanford Calderwood Professor of Economics at Wellesley College

John Lipsky
Former first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund

Mark Malloch-Brown
Former UK Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Edward E. McNally
Partner, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP; former General Counsel, Homeland Security Council

Robert Mosbacher, Jr.
Former President and CEO, Overseas Private Investment Corporation

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Minister of Finance of Nigeria; former Managing Director of the World Bank; Distinguished Fellow of the Brookings Institution

Bobby J. Pittman
Managing Director of Kupanda Capital

Dina Habib Powell
President of the Goldman Sachs Foundation and Global Head of Corporate Engagement

Sheryl Sandberg
Chief Operating Officer, Facebook

S. Jacob Scherr
Senior Attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); Director of NRDC's International Program and a Director of the NRDC BioGems Initiative

Smita Singh
Former Special Advisor for Global Affairs and Director, Global Development Program, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Lawrence H. Summers
Director of the National Economic Council for the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2011 and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, from 1999 to 2001.

Toni G. Verstandig
Senior Policy Advisor, Center for Middle East Peace & Economic Cooperation and Senior Policy Advisor, Aspen Institute Middle East Strategy Group
http://international.cgdev.org/page/board-directors

cbrass: Reasons why an ibo man can't be trusted with the presidency...

bloggernaija: Warrant officers from the east?
Do not bet on it.
They are as corrupt and inept as the northerners they always accuse of the same qualities

ukukaegbu: So her company should render services to Nigeria free of charge just because she was a minister abi?
BTW from what I saw there, she is not even a founding member of the organisation and there are more than 25 members in the Board of directors. Then when the services are rendered free of charge she would pay the others from her private salary abi?
Clap for yourself.

N/B: If she's later found guilty of corrupt practices she should be prosecuted sha

Magic Bishop: She was redeployed to another ministry and remains on record the first Minister to resign her appointment.

OBJ redeployed her when it became obvious she will not play ball by agreeing to cover the shaddy withdrawals he made for his 3rd. term and transition elections.

jjcbuthot:

Shut up your ignorant nyanminrin mouth. Who asked y1bos to comment?

Magic Bishop: [size=18pt]Liars!

She saved you 30BILLION DOLLARS by paying an outright sum far less than what you owe and you say she got a kick back?

If anything she should have been awarded compensation for her savvy negotiations.

Jobbless f00ls[/size]

masseratti:
But paying $3billion commission for a transaction of $36 billion is ludicrous.

justhelp: why is it that you people love to support bad acts? why is that every allegation of corruption against people from your area is not a big deal? why is it that love corrupt politician from your region even when you will not get penny from them ? why dont you think beyond individual and think about our country, the whole story then was within OBJ alone he does not want it out, he settle all the debt and Nigeria was debt free then, he fought for our economy to be among the best, though no one is perfect but OBJ was doing the right thing for the nation,after he settle all the debt our economy start growing, as at 2007 before OBJ left, dollar drop from 140 to 115naira to 1 dollar, immediately he left things begins to fall apart now we are debtor again, is that what you want ? Dollar is now between 165 to 170.all these had effects on you and i but because[b] I am not properly educated about what is good for me[/b] as human being and as Nigerian you have lost focus hence living a hopeless life. Bro use your head,think ahead.

Obiagelli: she has borrowed that paid debt again probably for another kick back. Can believe we will be servicing debts with 700billion next year.

Magic Bishop:

most of the original debt was not used to do anything as it ended up in the pockets of IBB and Abacha.

IBB used part of the IMF loan to procure sardines for the military. Fact!