"Take Ngozi (Okonjo-Iweala), who worked for me. And who worked competently for me. Because I know Ngozi’s weaknesses, but I know her strong points. Her strong point is technical competence. But Ngozi needs to be led and to be supervised. Now will you comment on Ngozi who worked for me as the same Ngozi who worked for Jonathan? Will you? But it’s the same person"
PT: At what point do you think she derailed if I may use that word?
Obasanjo: No.
PT:
Is it at the point that you changed her – because you removed her as
finance minister. Was it at that point that she began to derail?
Obasanjo: She
derailed because….when Jonathan even said he wanted her, I said ‘I hope
you can manage her.’ And Ngozi herself sent me a text (and) I told her
times have changed.
PT: But why did you change her? She was managing the economy very well for you. Why did you now remove her suddenly?
Obasanjo: I wrote it in that my book.
PT: It didn’t come out clearly enough?
PT: It didn’t come out clearly enough?
Obasanjo: It
must have come out. Maybe you haven’t read the book very well. I said
I’ve touched reform. I’ve touched almost everywhere except Ministry of
Education and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So one day, I was in my
office and the Head of Service, Yayale (Ahmed), came in. He said ‘look,
you are looking not happy, what is the matter?’ I said I am worried
about two ministries and the ministers who can do the work I wanted to
be done there in these two ministries are already doing good work where
they are. And he said ‘talk let me see.’ I said education and foreign
affairs. And he said ‘who are the ministers that you think can do the
job.’ I said Oby (Ezekwesili), Ngozi, and El-Rufai. He said ‘what is Oby
doing for you now?’ I said Oby is doing Solid Minerals. He said ‘Sir,
in all sincerity, I know you don’t like to rank ministries, but will you
say Ministry of Solid Minerals is as important as Ministry of
Education.’ I said yes I don’t rank ministries, they are all important.
He said, ‘Can’t you take any of these three to do education and then get
somebody else to do solid minerals?’ So I took Oby there. Now in the
Ministry of Finance we had got debt relief, so I could afford to take
Ngozi to Foreign Affairs. That’s all. And then she had Nenadi (Usman)
who was the minister of state. She’s not a buffoon. And then, which is
also part of her weakness, she came to me and said, look, since it’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she will like to take International Finance
along with it. I said talk to your sister with whom you are working and
I don’t see anything wrong with that provided you work out a
relationship. But she didn’t accord Nenadi the recognition and the
consideration that was necessary. I then said the ministry of
International finance should go back to Finance and that happened. She
said she couldn’t act. She put in a letter of resignation. And she had
done that before, and before she could come and get people to come and
beg, I announced acceptance (of her resignation).
PT: She once resigned before and she took it back?
Obasanjo: Yes.
PT: Which means you were always having disagreements…
Obasanjo: No no no. I know her character.
PT: So why did she resign the first time?
Obasanjo: She
just felt if she cannot have her way, with me…. If I am the one in
charge, then it has to be what I see as what is the best interest of the
nation.
PT:
So even when she resigned, if you didn’t announce the acceptance she
would have come back. So all efforts to make her come back didn’t work?
Obasanjo: No no no. Because I had announced.
