Coordinating Minister of Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has pledged to donate part of the proceeds from the public presentation of her book, “Reforming the Unreformable: Lessons from Nigeria”, to flood victims across the country.
Speaking at the event at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, yesterday, the Minister said she was making the gesture because “their plight reminds us that the work of improving the lives of our people is a
never ending one.”
Okonjo-Iweala said time was ripe for the de-politicisation of oil price benchmarking. She called for the establishment of a body of experts to determine the appropriate oil price benchmark in the formulation of national budgets, observing that the strategy has worked successfully for Chile which earns huge revenues from copper.
Okonjo-Iweala said she was motivated to write the book to encourage others to tell the Nigerian story by ourselves and not read it from foreigners.
“It is about time we capture our own story. We need to learn from the mistakes of our reform efforts so as not to repeat them. I hope people read it (the book) and capture the spirit of reform because Nigeria
can be transformed”.
She appealed to the youth not to succumb to pessimism and hopelessness or to be discouraged by people who argue that Nigeria was a lost case.
“Nigeria can and will change”, she said.
The Minister said the book was written in part to honour the work done by the Economic Management Team in the Obasanjo administration. “They put in a lot of work. What they did should not be lost”, she said.
President Goodluck Jonathan, represented by Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo said the book effectively refutes the popular belief that Nigeria’s political and economic institutions could never be
reformed. The President noted that the book’s central message of hope was appropriate at this point of the country’s history and that Nigeria, long given up by cynics as an entity averse to reform, could actually be transformed into one of the most dynamic economies in the world.
President Jonathan commended the Minister for finding time from her tight schedule to write the book which documents the efforts of the Presidential Economic Management Team under President Obasanjo, which Dr Okonjo-Iweala headed.
He described her effort as a manifestation of her patriotism and pledged his administration’s support for any such enterprise aimed at setting the records straight.
SOURCE: 31 October 2012.
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