Obasanjo: How Ezekwesili helped my govt save billions of naira

• Former Education Minister My Worthy Advisor, Says Malawian Ex-president
• Failure Of Governance Responsible For Nigeria’s Rising Out-of-school Figure, Ex-minister Declares

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed how Former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, assisted his administration in substantially reducing the cost of contracts, which he said saved the Federal government billions of naira.

Obasanjo said Ezekwesili, a former Vice President of the World Bank for Africa, brought transparency and accountability into the award of contracts through various reforms.

Obasanjo’s stated this in his goodwill message sent to the former minister during a Thanksgiving Service in celebration of her 60th birthday held at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (The Everlasting Arms Parish) in Abuja, yesterday.

Ezekwesili, who is also the convener, FixPolitics, and Founder, School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG), turned 60 years yesterday.

While describing Ezekwesili as a dynamic young woman who is competent, reliable and very enterprising, Obasanjo recalled how he met the former minister through Transparency International, an initiative started by Peter Eigen who had worked at the World Bank.

Ezekwesili had served as Minister of Solid Minerals before she was posted to the Education Ministry under Obasanjo’s administration from 1999-2007.

The former Nigerian leader said: “Before I appointed Oby a minister, I first assigned her to work closely with me in what we called the Price Intelligent Unit (PIU) which she headed and was domiciled at the Villa. It later became the Due Process Office, which earned her the nickname ‘Madam Due Process’. The idea was to cut down on waste and bring transparency and accountability into the award of contracts, which she did excellently.

The point is, in government, you cannot accurately eliminate sharp practices.

“But if you have good public officers like Oby you will reduce it to the barest minimum. That exactly was what she did at a period all contracts had to go through her office. Oby’s stewardship in the Due Process Office brought about a substantial reduction in cost of contracts, which of course saved the government billions of naira at the time. Given her involvement in the global demand for more transparency in the oil and gas sector, she was a founding member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The NEITI that we have today is by dint of her efforts and the support I gave, especially in the days of difficult beginning.

“From the Due Process Office, I appointed Oby a minister in charge of Solid Mineral. At that period, illegal mining was being carried out in several parts of Nigeria and most of the people in the business I shared my frustration with said we needed to put in place the requisite regulation. They also suggested that we needed someone who was tough to handle that ministry. So, knowing Oby very well, I could not see a more perfect fit for the sector. That was why I sent her to the ministry, and she did excellently well.

“After we had gone far in our transformation reforms in the Ministry of Solid Mineral, I realised that we hadn’t done much in Education. At that time, I knew that the Ministry of Education required reform and the three people that I thought I could use were already heavily involved in other things. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was still in Finance; Nasir El-Rufai was handling the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which had almost been destroyed with deviation from the original master plan. And then I had just put Oby in Solid Mineral. I had a conversation with the Head of Service who felt that I could deploy Oby for the assignment. I was hesitant because I didn’t want to disrupt what she was doing at Solid Mineral. “Sir, is Solid Mineral ministry more important than that of Education?” That question settled it for me. I sent Oby to Education, and I told her to recommend a replacement for the Solid Mineral sector.

“As President, I tried to expose some of the brightest talents I had in government to opportunities available to be the best they could possibly be. Without any doubt, Oby was one of the best talents I had working with me.”

Former Malawian President, Joyce Banda, in her remarks, described Ezekwesili as a worthy advisor when she was head of state.

Banda, however, revealed that she could have been jailed after leaving office if not for Ezekwesili’s advice.

She stated: “So, l met my sister, Oby, in Dubai at the World Economic Forum where we were both attending and speaking about the corruption problem of Malawi. I said, ‘You know the war has started in Malawi. I decided that you can’t steal from the government and you can’t steal from the poor anymore. So me, I decided to lock them up; I’ve been advised that is too late for me to do this because I have only six months to my next presidential elections.’

“So Oby said something that I’ll never forget and that I shall always value although she often makes light of her major role as my advisor by saying ‘when she was a President, I supported her’. It was much more than mere support. It was serious support.

“So at our meeting in Dubai, Oby said to me, ‘Look, I have been at the World Bank and know how some of these things work. If you are clear in your mind that you haven’t done anything wrong, set up a commission of inquiry right now and conduct a forensic audit if necessary.

“It is very rare to find an African leader conduct a forensic audit during her government or his government during their tenure. They will want to wait and see if the IMF or World Bank will say let’s check, let’s see before doing anything about corruption. Because of Oby’s advice, I asked the British government to help me find an independent audit firm, and Beckateri was appointed.

“They came and conducted a forensic audit, and the report is a public document online. Once I took the action Oby advised me to take, I had friends who even put up, found lawyers for me, helped me even go to Interpol and court. I even sued here in Malawi and won the case of defamation even though I am yet to receive the money.”

On his part, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, described the former minister as a global talent that has contributed immensely to the development of the country.

While thanking Nigerians for their good wishes, Ezekwesili urged citizens to play their own role for the growth of the country.

Meanwhile, with statistics of 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, Ezekwesili has said that classic failure of governance was responsible for the menace.

This was even as she also said no single government was capable of solving all the problems of the country alone, insisting that citizens must be part of the process of solving problems in society.

She stated this when her team at Human Capital Africa (HCA), an accountability initiative, paid a visit to Not Forgotten Initiative School, a non-profit school set up for the sole purpose of providing free access to education in Abuja.

The visit, which was part of activities to mark Ezekwesili’s 60th birthday, saw HCA donating a sum of N2 million and adopting the school for further intervention programmes.

While applauding the founder of the school, Tosin Adeniyi, for coming up with the initiative as part of efforts to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, she lamented that the classic failure in governance suggests that citizens must also play their own role in developing the society.

According to the latest global data on out-of-school children by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Nigeria now has about 20 million out-of-school children.

Ezekwesili, who blamed classic failure in governance for the menace, said: “There is classic failure in governance that creates the kinds of problems and situations we have in the areas of delivery of basic services like education and health to our citizens.

“But then there is also the part where this initiative doesn’t necessarily have to be because of the failure of government. It is rather an initiative where citizens are showing that they can be contributors to solving society’s multiple needs. The kinds of needs that we have are humongous, that even the best government acting alone would not be able to solve all of them.

“So all citizens must be part of the process of solving problems in society. But I think that what her initiative does is that it will create an example, so that the government will see that if you did this kind of a programme in a certain kind of way, that the children in the school will actually not just come to school, but that they will learn literacy and numeracy, which is a major challenge.”

Noting that the foundational level is the most critical level in education, the former minister said the country needs more impact-focused Nigerians who can choose to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

Ezekwesili added: “She (Tosin) looked around her environment and saw children who were out of school. They are children of parents that live in those makeshift houses that you see around in this neighbourhood in Asokoro. Then she decided that she must do something about it and ensure that they get education, and she started literally under the tree.

“The foundational level that she’s addressing is the most critical level in education because it determines what will happen at all other levels.

“Nigerians must understand that what she is doing, what she has done, is formidable for the society and so the more that we celebrate these kinds of citizens’ initiative that works, the more government will be forced to do the right things to make sure that all of our children get the education necessary for economic and social mobility.”

Speaking, Adeniyi urged the government to make education accessible to every child and provide adequate supervision so as not to give room for failure.

“Today we have 85 kids in the school. We have 27 on our scholarship, 10 in Federal Government College and about four in the university.

“I want to advice the government to make education accessible to every child, and don’t leave any child behind. They should also provide the supervision that it requires. So, it’s not just setting up a school but ensuring that the right thing is being taught and personnel are motivated to do the right thing,” she said.