Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines (The MIT Press)

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Delmas, Candice. 2014. The civic duty to report crime and corruption. Les Ateliers de l’Éthique 9 (1): 50–64.

At the end of the war, Okonjo-Iweala went to the US to study economics at Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), married her childhood sweetheart and, at the age of 25, began working for the World Bank, rising steadily up the institution’s hierarchy, travelling widely, and only leaving when invited to be finance minister of Nigeria in 2003. But the family's life was turned upside down by the outbreak of civil war in 1967. Her father became a brigadier in the Biafran army and went to the front line. The family was forced to move from place to place, surviving on one meal a day or less. The war ended with more than a million dead, many lost to starvation.Add the pandemic to the turmoil, and the WTO’s most substantive work was ground to a near standstill last year and spurred its previous director-general to quit unexpectedly. The incoming chief of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has a reputation for shaking up the guardians of wealth and power that will come in handy in her new role. But she lost a chunk of that goodwill during the fuel subsidy protests in January. Her spirited defence of the subsidy removal – she was one of the most vocal pro-removal voices – portrayed her as an anti-people person, and there are Nigerians who will never be able to see her in another light." From those wretched days, Okonjo-Iweala rose to become Nigeria's first female finance minister and nemesis of corruption. She has been lauded by Bono and Gordon Brown, who called her "a brilliant reformer". Now she is an outside bet for president of the World Bank, an appointment that would be a watershed moment for Africa and the developing world. Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the Brussels-based ECIPE think tank, pointed out that much would hinge on Okonjo-Iweala's ability to win round the cultish trade circles where she was little known.

In Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has written a primer for those working to root out corruption and disrupt vested interests. Drawing on her experience as Nigeria’s finance minister and that of her team, she describes dangers, pitfalls, and successes in fighting corruption. She provides practical lessons learned and tells how anti-corruption advocates need to equip themselves. Okonjo-Iweala details the numerous ways in which corruption can divert resources away from development, rewarding the unscrupulous and depriving poor people of services. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, recently appointed the first woman Director General of the World Trade Organization. Many Nigerians would, however, balk at those glowing descriptions of Dr Okonjo-Iweala, given her controversial and broadly negative public image in Nigeria, particularly during her second time as finance minister and coordinating minister for the economy when she became Nigeria’s de facto prime minister under a weak and rudderless president. But to the international community, her real constituency, Okonjo-Iweala, who is currently chair of the board of GAVI, the global health body, is a hallowed figure. And she was feted as such at the London event. Ashford, Blake, and Vikas Anand. 2003. The Normalization of corruption in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior 25: 1–52. This is a very significant moment for the WTO," David Walker, the WTO's General Council chair, said in a statement.

Biography of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Dr Ngozi is sympathetic about the Chibok girls scenario and as a mother she probably was the best person placed in the forefront. But from her writings about the executive cabinet, she may be perceived as a feminist - one who may advocate gender equality at every facet of society. A country that wants to truly fight corruption needs to build system and also carry out institutional reforms. Corruption can't be successfully fought by randomly breaking into people's homes in the dead of the night in a gestapo way. The current and subsequent Nigeria government should build on the foundation that has already been laid by NOI. Although she is inarguably a skilled banker and political operator, trade diplomats are after all a cult. She must convince the trade ministers — who are traditionally oppressed by the figures of finance ministries," he said.

MIT Press Direct is a distinctive collection of influential MIT Press books curated for scholars and libraries worldwide.Klosko, George. 1994. Political obligation and the natural duty of justice. Philosophy and Public Affairs 23 (3): 251–270. Morton, Adam. 2004. Epistemic virtues, metavirtues, and computational complexity. Nous 38 (3): 481–502. Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s two books, “Reforming the Unreformable” (2012) and the latest “Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous”, both capturing her experiences as finance minister in Nigeria, are certainly a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the political economy of reform and governance in the country. She is an outstanding technocrat and an intrepid reformer, but, as I said, less adroit in the game of politics. She is underappreciated in her home country Nigeria, but highly celebrated by the international community, and rightly so. As Gordon Brown said powerfully at the event, “You are talking about a finance minister, but more than that someone who’s got something to say about the future of the world and the future of Africa”. Few will disagree with that! The presidential adviser gave me the I told you so look, as if this wouldn’t work until you got this woman involved.” The consultant was correct. She thwarted what appeared to be a rerun of the 2013 catastrophe, in which Mozambique was saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt in exchange for a decommissioned tuna fishing fleet. Dr Okonjo-Iweala is the founder of Nigeria's first ever indigenous opinion-research organization, NOI-Polls. She also founded the Center for the Study of Economies of Africa (C-SEA), a development research think tank based in Abuja, Nigeria. She is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development, and at the Brookings Institution, premier Washington D.C. think tanks.

In publishing this powerful account, Okonjo-Iweala has achieved three objectives. First, to set the record straight by providing a behind-the-scenes account of real events, which occurred during her time in Nigeria’s government. Second, to expose the main actors and forces behind corruption in Nigeria and share information on some of the efforts by her team to fight them. Finally, to highlight corruption in the developing world more broadly, the obstacles to eradicating it, and the risks to those who choose to fight it. These objectives have been achieved. NNPC is a basket case. The amount of public funds unaccounted for in that agency is mind-boggling. Instead of serving the country, it looks like the country is serving NNPC. A situation where its Group Managing Director challenged the right of the Finance Minister’s right to ask for information on production volumes and sales of crude oil or even to try to hold NNPC accountable to deliver the needed volume of funding is one that causes one to shudder. There is also the matter of the National Assembly which to me is the most interesting chapter in the book. The long and short of the chapter is that Nigerian legislators exist to budget as much money as possible to themselves. The budget process is one which every Nigerian should read about. Perhaps it will cause us to hold them more accountable. There is a reason they earn one of the highest monetary benefits in the world. Our budget system is flawed. The civil war pitting the separatist Biafra state against the Nigerian central government disrupted her education and exposed her to further hardship. “I was eating one meal a day and children were dying. So, I learned to live very frugally. I often say I can sleep on a mud floor as well as a feathered bed and be very comfortable. It has made me someone who can do without things in life because of what we went through,” Okonjo-Iweala told Forbes magazine last year.The woman oil marketer that hosted other oil marketers in her house for a meeting where they agreed to make NOI leave office in wheelchair. Okonjo-Iweala's critics argue her expertise lies more in finance than trade, with one diplomat saying she was "not a trade name." Robinson, Nicholas. 2011. The anti-corruption paradox. Social Science and Policy Bulletin [Lahore University of Management Sciences] 3 (1): 10–17.