Oby Ezekwesili negotiating to be appointed co-ordinating Minister for the economy in Buhari's govt

 

According to Nigeria Times, feelers from ongoing consultations within APC circles on appointments in the incoming administration of President-elect Muhammadu Buhari, indicate that former Education Minister and leader of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, Oby Ezekwesili, is currently in talks with APC leaders, towards being made Finance Minister.

 

A source within the APC hierarchy told The Nigerian Times that the former Minister turned activist has equally indicated interest in the post of Coordinating Minister for the Economy, a position created by the Goodluck Jonathan administration and currently held by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

 

Sources however says that while the party’s leadership is not unwilling to consider Ezekwesili for the post of Finance Minister, they appear reluctant to make her the Coordinating Minister for the Economy.

 

It was not clear as at the time of filing this report, whether the party’s reluctance in this regard is as a result of not wanting to continue with the Coordinating Minister post in the new government, or whether it has penciled down some other person for the job.

 

Though Ezekwesili is not a card carrying member of the All Progressives Congress, she has for long been closely associated with key figures in the party.

 

She has equally been one of the harshest critics of the Jonathan administration, the high point of her hostility towards the government being her institution of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, in the wake of the Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction in April last year.

 

She had severely criticised Jonathan’s handling of the Economy, accusing the government of mismanagement of resources.

 

Ezekwesili, a chattered accountant, was a key member of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s economic team, serving at a time as the pioneer head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (also known as the Due Process Unit).

 

She later served as Minister of Solid Minerals and then Education, following which she proceeded to the World bank as Vice President Africa division, when President Obasanjo’s tenure ended in 2007.

Since her return from the World Bank assignment in 2012, there has been a seeming cold war between her and Okonjo-Iweala, with whom she shares the pedigree of having worked with the World bank.

 

Okonjo-Iweala, who holds a PhD in Regional Economics, was one of the Managing Directors of the World bank from 2007 to 2011, when she returned to Nigeria to take up appointment with the Jonathan government.

 

Many believe that the economy has done fairly well under her, given the peculiar record of it having become Afrca’s largest economy, producing annually, according to the Minister, about 1.6 million jobs.

 

Observers say that if Ezekwesili succeeds in her quest to have the management of the Economy vested on her, it may be time for her to show that she understands the Nigerian economy better than Okonjo-Iweala and the Jonathan administration.