Firstly, let me say Congratulations to Ngozi Okonjo Iweala who has proved her mettle and has continued to bag one international appointment after another. With the way reputable international organizations have been courting her, She definitely has a Midas touch, and whatever she touches turns to gold.
No matter your sentiments, you will agree with me that Gavi, Standard Chartered Bank, Twitter, etc, cannot allow anyone who is not the best in what she does to sit on their boards. No serious government (except Nigerian Government) can call a mediocre to help steady the ship of their capsizing economy like South Africa did. The World Health Organization can’t appoint a failure as special envoy to mobilize international economic support for continental fight against Covid-19.
As the Coordinating Minister of economy under former President Goodluck Jonathan, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala was able to steady the Nigerian economy. A lot of people did not appreciate what she did, but Buhari’s administration has opened the eyes of the naysayers that they are now wondering what magical powers she used to do it. Everything she warned about Nigerian economy has all happened. She campaigned for saving for the rainy day, but those APC governors were busy playing politics, without seeing the reasons in her warnings. Five years after, they are still trading blames and pointing accusing fingers.
Ngozi Okonjo Iweala is not slowing down, instead she’s changing altitude like the eagle as she continues to soar higher to the greater benefit of the world.
Professor C C Soludo was an astute banker who redefined Banking in Nigeria by his Consolidation reform, which strengthened our banking sector. He’s a very smart and intelligent man, and nobody can take that away from him. His tenure as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s and the feats he achieved lends credence to the quality Soludo possesses.
Because of Soludo’s qualities, one would have expected him to soar higher just like Ngozi Okonjo Iweala is doing after his tenure in the CBN, but he has continued on a downward spiral. One of the reasons why it is so is because of his quest for power.
His foray into Nigerian politics can be described as premature, and one of his greatest miscalculations. Nigerian political field is where intellectuals are messed up and turn to fools, especially such intellectuals who are not grounded in the grassroots and doesn’t understand the peculiarity of our polity; those who are elitist.
The division he caused in his hometown of Isuofia for championing the creation of an autonomous community was uncalled for and the most unintelligent thing a man in his class would do. His saying “if not broken, why mend it” about Anambra state, which he knows is shattered beyond recognition just because he wants to be a governor at all costs, brought closer a hammer with which to nail his coffin. Agreeing to serve in the economic advisory council of Buhari, where he knows his opinion won’t ever count, brought closer the nail. What sealed his faith and used the hammer to drive in the nail into his coffin is his inability to complete a hospital in memory of his mother which public donations was called for, and which corporate bodies and individuals donated handsomely for after 12 years.
It’s unheard of that the revered Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo is a political “ boy boy” to a stark illiterate who can’t be considered able to untie his shoes just for his quest for power. Why won’t he be messed up when intelligent and smart people like him are busy becoming global brands, while he’s busy enmeshed with avoidable village politics, and support of known failures in Governor Obiano of Anambra state and Buhari of Nigeria? No serious international organizations can hire anyone involved with such failures.
By Odumodu Gbulagu
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK