Former Minister Ngozi Okonjo Iweala Drums Support For Buhari's Anti-Corruption War

The immediate past Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has expressed support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s effort at tackling corruption, saying graft remains Nigeria’s biggest impediment to achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

Speaking on September 30 as a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, United States, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said the president was confronting corruption “head on” and was setting the example that would directly help root out corruption in other sectors of the government.

“The new president of the country who is just taking office has made it the central plan of his administration to fight corruption to root it out, and he sets about restructuring some of the key agencies where things are happening, setting example,” the former minister said at the 2015 Holts Lecture of the Pennsylvania University Law School. 

“I think with that when you see example in one place, it sends the message about what should happen in other places. I think this is being confronted head on. And I think and hope that with what is going on and what we tried to do in the previous administration, bringing more transparency to way of doing business.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said with “the example being set by the president” she was hopeful Nigeria will get rid of corruption.

The former minister discussed Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, and how illicit financial flow could impede the post 2015 development agenda, especially in developing countries like Nigeria.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said although funds needed for SDGs are huge, blocking illicit financial flow could help free up the needed funds.

Eighty per cent of the SDGs are infrastructural goals which require $6 trillion in funding for the next 15 years, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said.