Nairalanders, Paul Wolfowitz is resigning as World Bank president because of the case of conflict of interest that saw him approving a pay rise for his woman friend Ms Shaha Riza from $130,000 to $193,000. When the allegations came to fore, I was almost certain that this would be the result.

Coming back home, sometime in 2004, FCT Minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai was found to have employed his lady friend Ms Aishatu Kolo as a special assistant with a pay of N9.7 million claiming she was a World Bank expert. It turned out that the lady was just a Youth Corper.  Nothing happened to El-Rufai.

In my opinion, our lackadaisical attitude towards the corrupt ways of our leaders serves to encourage them and continues to lead us into an uncertain future.

What do you guys think?

Well resignation is a personal decision, it is not the fault of Nigerians that a public official has refused to resign.

It is like blaiming Nigerians that Atiku refused to resign when Jacob Zuma did.

Wolfowitz resignation was actually a deal to save face. He was about to be dismissed from the World Bank. Nobody wants to be disgraced (See how Femi Pedro tried to quickly resign in Lagos). The pressure from the public and Board members of the World Bank brought this about. We, the Nigerian public have the power through our representatives, the press and other means to exert similar pressure on our corrupt public officials. The question is, do we use this power?

El Rufai's inability to resign is the difference between a whiteman and a blackman!
We don't seem to have shame when we  do something wrong in NAIJA rather we
receive kudos.

May God help us!

@okei; well said.

Wolfowitz didn't do anything wrong,its a witch-hunt against him engineered by those resentful over the part he played on the Iraq issue and his anti-corruption campaign.One of his accusers,Malloch Brown,actually wants the job for himself

jidody:

Wolfowitz resignation was actually a deal to save face. He was about to be dismissed from the World Bank. Nobody wants to be disgraced (See how Femi Pedro tried to quickly resign in Lagos). The pressure from the public and Board members of the World Bank brought this about. We, the Nigerian public have the power through our representatives, the press and other means to exert similar pressure on our corrupt public officials. The question is, do we use this power?

Really?
Our representatives? How many people know the name of their local government chairman or even what he looks like?
talkless of house of rep and senators that sit somewhere far away in Abuja. they have absolutely no contatct with their constituents no mailing address nothing, how exactly do you have power to exact pressure on taht person.
to get the press to do something you have to payyy!!

Because in the country that Mr. Wolfowitz lives in, there is something like work ethnic.

in the country that Mr. Rufai lives in, there is no work ethnic. You can add all your family to the payroll, your wife, you girlfriend etc, nobody will ask you any question.

@Mckren,

Well resignation is a personal decision, it is not the fault of Nigerians that a public official has refused to resign.

There is nothing personal about the resignation. He was pressured into resignation by the board of Directors.

It is like blaiming Nigerians that Atiku refused to resign when Jacob Zuma did.

The case between El Rufai and Atiku are way different. Atiku was elected and can only resign if the electorate pressure him to do so. El-Rufai on the other hand is a political appointee and if those who appointed him have any moral standards, they should have either pressured him to resign or fire him immediately.

El-Rufai or other Nigerian leaders will never resign because they are there just for their own interest, so no matter what ever they did wrong they dont see it has having done anything to warranty resignation. They have to be there to continue to serve their interest and that of their families. Our leaders are so shameless that no amount of pressure from public or media will make them resign. The only way out is for a superior authority to remove them or they die in office. We still have a long way to go!

@Solokay,

The only way out is for a superior authority to remove them

The problem is that the superior authority is not morally superior and thus cannot remove anybody.

Let me summarise what happened at the Bank

Shaha was due for promotion with a higher salary but when her boyfriend was appointed Bank President,her position became untenable because of Bank rules.Wolf asked to recuse himself from the issue but the ethics asked him to personally decide on the matter.When he did,he was sent a memo approving what he did.

Politics has gotten in the way of the matter.The only thing he did wrong was that he probably was too generous in the financial compensation,other than that he did nothing wrong

bye bye to rubbish, using our money to pay for his lover,

babasin:

bye bye to rubbish, using our money to pay for his lover,

Our money?

The former Vice President who was Chinese actually promoted his wife and gave her a huge salary.U know what happened after that,nothing!

The World Bank survives on giving credits and Wolf has been cutting back some of the loans to the consternation of staffers.Now that he is gone,"your money" is not any safer

@okei


When you tend to AFRICANISE or RACIALISE a problem this is what gets me sad. We tend to think that white people are HOLY SAINTS.

If it is not TRIBE it is Dialect
if it is not WHITE it is Black


Why are we doing this to ourselves we easily generalize and kill the GOOD OBJECTIVITY that our Kids should have of them selves.

Tell you what is wrong with what you wrote here if a child reads this it registers in his subconscious and there he will look everybody black around him as inferior and a Problem.

he the child will repeat this immediately he sees any small problem. In xtian principle when Joshua and caleb spoke positively we saw that only 2 of them entered into the promise land. we have to be careful of what we say about our people.

If we have a problem with ONE PERSON LET US CORRECT IT AND LET IT END WITH ONE PERSON.