The media has been rife with information Ngozi Okongo-Iweala’s revelation of how former President Goodluck Jonathan landed Nigeria in her current economic morass. The former finance minister of finance, has however, denied blaming the former president.
“In my second time as a finance minister, from 2011 to 2015, we had the instrument, we had the means, we had done it before, but zero political will.
“So we were not able to save when we should have. That is why you find that Nigeria is now in the situation it is in. Along with so many other countries,” she had said on Thursday at George Washington University.
However, in a statement issued on Friday by her spokesperson, Paul Nwabuikwu, Okonjo-Iweala said the above statement was targeted at state governors, who opposed the president’s plan to save when oil prices surged upward.
“Some recent media reports have distorted comments made by former Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala regarding how lack of political will negatively impacted national savings over the past few years,” she said, adding that the opposition to the planned saving led to a court action at the Supreme Court.
“Contrary to the slant, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala did not indict the Jonathan administration in which she served.
“Rather, she was referring to what many Nigerians already know: the strong opposition by some governors to the Jonathan government’s efforts to save in the Excess Crude Account and the Sovereign Wealth Fund sabotaged this important national priority.”
