Nigeria is a country in dire need of inspirational figures internationally. Inspiration could mean something as simple as looking forward to watching the television when our faves are out there representing us in politics, or scrolling your smartphone just to see one of our own holding it down in the big league; whether it’s dominating international beauty pageants, taking the pole position at a Grand Prix, smashing a Guinness World Record or coming up clutch in sports. Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s unopposed bid for her sophomore term at the helm of the World Trade Organisation speaks to the fact that her emergence as the first female head of the organisation four years ago was anything but a fluke.
Not gonna lie, I am not the biggest fan of Nigeria’s political class. Unfortunately, it is designed to throw up the worst of us, not the best of us – such that having a competent person in public office looks like a black swan event. The typical Nigerian politician will stain your white. Nonetheless, there are notable exceptions, like Dr. Iweala. I have always been a fan, there is something about competence – if e didn’t dey, e didn’t dey. Thanks to good friends at Roving Heights, I was privileged to be in the room for a book reading session where she shared intimate details about the personal and professional costs of refusing to be part of the political gravy train. Her speech mirrored a truth that the title of her book succinctly captured – Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous. Pictures, they say, tell stories; all you have to do is watch Dr Iweala at a global function and you can almost smell the aura. When she is interfacing with world leaders, she is not trying to hustle for a photo-op. It is usually a case of mutual respect and admiration. Her signature Ankara dress will always possess that main character energy.
As much as Dr Iweala has become one of Nigeria’s biggest non-oil exports to the world, her career, especially during her time in public service back home in Nigeria, also highlighted one of the challenges that competent people face: campaigns of calumny by political jobbers. It has become a sad reality that great people are seldom appreciated in real-time, only in hindsight is their genius acknowledged. By my own reckoning, 9 out of 10 Nigerians would do anything to have the economy that Dr Iweala superintended over during her tenure as the Economic Minister. The naira had much more value, the GDP was at least twice what it is now, the middle class was in full swing, small businesses were thriving and household incomes were enough to afford certain things that are now considered luxury in today’s Nigeria.
One would think such economic management prowess would attract the praises of large swaths of our so-called intellectual class but no, they chose the clownery of questioning her well-documented credentials. The same political mob that organised massive protests against a proposed phasing out of fuel subsidies when the economy was at a much healthier point to absorb the shock. Yet the same people are justifying the ill-advised and impulsive removal of subsidies today. For her contributions in ensuring that Nigeria left the Paris Club, you would expect high praise from those who now complain that the country is wallowing in debt. If you still take seriously the socio-economic and political submissions from those who promised that N1 will equal $1 if given the chance to govern, then the joke is really on you.
Isn’t it interesting that certain activists and emergency lovers of Nigeria somehow find consensus in denigrating the most competent leaders wherever they are found but are strangely quiet when the most egregious acts are committed by terrible leaders? I am familiar with their game; some of what you think are acts of holding certain people’s feet to the fire are engineered from certain WhatsApp groups and like bots, the attack dogs are unleashed on social media. The selective amnesia and the faux outrage is a feature, not a bug.
My point is that we should not allow people who are committed to ruining Nigeria trick us into losing out on great leaders. These are snake oil salespersons, selling out their fellow citizens is just a gig to them – don’t expect patriotism from people who only thrive when the country is in shambles. They are the most eloquent speakers when it comes to posturing as advocates for good governance but watch them during elections, they will fall over themselves to support the most abominable candidacy running for office. We are not doing great leaders any favours by rooting for them. We need them in political positions more than they do for themselves. Regardless of whatever government is in play, I know some of us will thrive – so this prosperity is not for the individual, it’s for the collective.
I was going through some news on Obasanjo’s internet and I shook my head at some of the things I was seeing. “How did we fall off so bad?” I asked myself. We went from scholarly geniuses breaking down the impact of macroeconomic policies of government in a way that even the average Nigerian could understand to having jesters who think making skits is the best approach to explaining a sensitive policy, instead of actual experts. We went from taking economic data at prima facie from government agencies to witnessing an Orwellian-style manufacturing of key numbers that flies in the face of conventional or experiential knowledge. People who threatened civil war when PMS was selling at less than N100, now tell everyone to reject the evidence of their own eyes and ears in the face of inflation that is athletic. Now, those who tell the truth as it is are accused of demarketing the country.
This is for patriots; let people like Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala remind us that a great Nigeria is possible and we deserve great leaders across all tiers of government. When that time comes, I won’t be doing the most to convince anybody – we will all lie down on the bed we make as a country. The future will tell whether we have learnt from history or we are hell-bent on repeating it.
