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THE INSIDE STORY: How Rufai Convinced Obasanjo on Dollar Salary
Saturday, July 24, 2004 -
Minister Nasir El Rufai
ChatAfriK Exclusive!!!
by Laolu Akande ChatAfrik Syndicated Reporter and Columnist. New York
How I Convinced Obasanjo To Pay Dollar Salaries To Ex World Bank VP, By
FCT Minister El Rufai
For the first time and in full public glare, the genesis of the dollar
denominated salaries to two Nigerian ministers was revealed in New York
by Federal Capital Territory Minister Malaam Nasir El Rufai, who
disclosed that he personally convinced President Olusegun Obasanjo on
the need to pay Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in dollars.
The Finance Minister and her Foreign Affairs counterpart, Ambassador Olu
Adeniji are both paid in dollar denominated salaries. The Finance
Minister earns about $240,000 per annum, while the Foreign Affairs
Minister earns $120,000.
Rufai who was in New York recently to receive a merit award from the
well known Nigeria Lawyers Association, NLA narrated how he was present
here in the US with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala when the call came through
to her from the presidency that Obasanjo was offering her a job as
minister in his second term as president.
Rufai, who has been a leading defender of the controversial dollar
salary structure among members of the Federal Executive Council, FEC,
said immediately the call came though, Okonjo-Iweala informed him that
she could not take the job.
"I told her you must take the job, she said she can't," El Rufai
recalled as he narrated to the over 200 guests at the Law dinner the
reasons Okonjo-Iweala proferred. The guests included US Congressman
Charles Rangel, a powerful African American legislator and hundreds of
Nigerian professionals in New York.
According to Rufai, Iweala then explained to him that due to financial
considerations including her upcoming huge pension payment at the World
Bank, which she might loose in case she left the Bank. Iweala was also
concerned about other financial commitments like school fees for her
children's education in the US attending such top institutions as
Harvard Universities and mortgage payments in Washington DC where she
lived with her specialist surgeon husband, Dr. Ikemba Iweala, himself a
distinguished Nigerian medical practitioner in the US.
The finance minister was so worried that the salary of a minister would
lead to a heavy financial burden for her if she were to maintain all her
financial committments, knowing full well that she is not the type to
pilfer the public coffers while in office.
But it was an unrelenting Rufai who insisted that Iweala must take the
job inspite of those financial concerns. According to the FCT Minister
"I told her you must do this, we will all do what we have to do, we must
make Nigeria government work."
The FCT Minister, who himself was yet to be named a Minister at that
time said he told Okonjo-Iweala that she was key to a series of reform
that needed to be put in place in the then new upcoming administration
of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Rufai noted that inspite of his insistence, Iweala still said no, she
can't accept the job.
So the FCT Minister assured the then World Bank Vice President that the
problem would be resolved. "So I went back to say to the President that
she can't take the job." According to Rufai, a shocked Obasanjo retorted
"What?
He then narrated how he explained to the president that "you can't pay
her," which according to him eventually led to the dollar denominated
salary. Rufai said the UNDP fund was thus started so Okonjo-Iweala could
be paid
Lasy year June, ie 2003, Okonjo-Iweala was herself honored by the same
Nigeria Lawyers Association, NLA at that year's law dinner for the same
merit award given to Rufai most recently. At that event in 2003,
Okonjo-Iweala drew a huge applause and gave a highly well received
speech where she urged Nigerians abroad to be ready to bail the country
out. She was clearly concerned about the fate of Nigeria
This was how a report of that event went according to a Nigeriaworld
report last June.
"Her speech at the Lawyers dinner recently in New York was clearly a
clarion call to all Nigerians in the Diaspora to offer themselves for
salvaging of the country alongside folks at home. May be she was
addressing the critical arm of Nigerians abroad who have vent their
frustration so stridently especially on the internet on the dwindling
fortune of the county. She noted that "many people say things about
Nigeria that we don't want to hear, but whatever, it is about their love
of the country."
She went ahead to say the issue now is to plan for Nigeria's future and
not to get caught in lamenting its past. "Nigeria is at a junction where
we have to think of the future. I feel strongly that if we the young
ones don't do something to seize the opportunity, we will be in danger
of loosing the future. If you don't fix your house, it may be fixed for
you."
But in statement over the weekend Kennedy Emetulu, the London based
lawyer and former journalist insisted that the the FCT Minister and the
UNDP should make a full disclosure about this fund since the fund in its
objective, design and purpose is different from all other thematic funds
of the UNDP. Many other observers insist that the UNDP fund was an
after-thought.
Rufai had compared the UNDP fund to similar ones in other countries, but
Emetulu dismissing the claim noted that it is obvious that the
minister’s claims "bother on outright lies or half-truths and these are
delivered with the aim of deceiving Nigerians into believing that what
they have is what obtains elsewhere."
In a statement he noted that "Nigerians have seen through this and have
insisted and continue to insist that the Nigerian government and the
UNDP come up with full disclosures."
According to him, "as I write, Mr Mark Malloch Brown, the UNDP
Administrator has in front of him 19 questions to answer regarding the
Nigerian Diaspora Trust Fund. These questions have been sent to him
between Monday, March 8, 2004 and Wednesday, March 10 2004. "
He went on "If the UNDP is actually prepared to be open and transparent
about the Nigerian Diaspora Trust Fund as it’s promised, then Mr Brown
needs to address those questions."
But another Nigerian journalist and public affairs analyst has observed
that the debate over the dollar salary is a good one as it is a basis
for determining salaries in Nigeria principally on productivity. He said
all ministers don't have to be equally paid. The president should have
the right to pay ministers differently based on his valuation of their
net contributions.
The New York based Pastor Nimi Wariboko, former deputy editor of the
defunct Financial Post told The Guardian that President Obasanjo is the
one to hold responsible in this matter and not Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, who
according to him merely negotiated a salary for herself.
Wariboko, an author on economic history, finance and management and
professor at the New York University and the business school at Hofstra
University also in New York said historically in Ashanti empire, the
Ashantehene paid his people according to their productivity based on a
scale
of fees and commissions and numerous other ways, stressing that there is
nothing un-African in the idea of paying ministers differently. He said
that is what happens on Wall Street and other places where people take
the connection between productivity and incentive system seriously.
However he said the president should have abided by the constitutional
stipulations, if there are such provisions bordering on the salaries of
public officials like ministers. Yet he argued that having the
constitution stipulating the salaries of the ministers is an "unwise”
thing to do. Do we
amend the constitution any time we want to change salary structure, he
wondered.
Professor Wariboko argued that any person who plans not to steal public
funds while in office has the right to secure for his or herself a
competitive remuneration package. The president and the Finance Minister
may have put this into consideration while negotiating the compensation
package
for the beleaguered World Bank official.
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