A former Finance Minister and
Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has recounted
details of her mother’s abduction while she served under former President
Goodluck Jonathan.
According to her book titled,
‘Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines’, it was one
of the personal acts of intimidation she was subjected to, because of her
insistence on implementing reforms and insisting that the right things should
be done.
In December 2012, 83-year-old
Prof. Kamene Okonjo was kidnapped in broad daylight from her country home in
Ogwashi-Ukwu.
“They asked my brother to tell me
to announce on national television and radio that I was resigning from my job
as finance minister and leaving the country,” Okonjo-Iweala revealed when the
kidnappers eventually made contact.
Okonjo-Iweala’s mother was
released two days after.
According to her, the reason
behind the kidnap was that, with the support of Jonathan, she had convened a
taskforce that audited fiscal accounts and detected fraudulent claims for oil
subsidy payments which she refused to pay.
The former Minister believed that
as risky as it was to serve and fight corruption, in spite of the dangers and
difficulties, “it was worth it because institutions, systems, and processes
that can endure were built for Nigeria, and substantial monies saved”.
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