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Home ยป Okonjo-Iweala Reveals How Her Mother Was Kidnapped Because Of Fuel Subsidy
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Okonjo-Iweala Reveals How Her Mother Was Kidnapped Because Of Fuel Subsidy

OsunDailyBy OsunDailyJune 4, 2023No Comments4 Mins Read
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The concept of petrol subsidy removal isnโ€™t new in Nigeria. The administration of former President Jonathan, which featured the now WTO Director General, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as the Minister of Finance and Economy Coordinator, struggled with the same issue.

The proposal to end the subsidy met with substantial resistance, including a personal ordeal involving Okonjo-Iwealaโ€™s mother.

In a recent viral video, Okonjo-Iweala discussed her efforts to eliminate fraudulent subsidies.

โ€œWe audited about $8.4b worth of claims and we found out $2.5b worth of fraud. That is, many of these marketers were trying to claim $2.5b fraudulently,โ€ she said.

This revelation was met with fierce opposition from those who benefited from the flawed system, leading to intense personal and professional repercussions for Okonjo-Iweala.

In a shocking turn of events, Okonjo-Iwealaโ€™s mother was kidnapped by individuals demanding her resignation.

She said, โ€œMy second example has to do with a very specific one in my country, the clean-up of the fuel scarcity regime in 2012 during my second stay as Finance Minister.

โ€œNigeria has a physically challenging force of fuel regime, the country exports crude oil and imports fuel because their refineries are in a very bad shape and provides a subsidy for the refined oil as support.

โ€œAt the end of 2011, a total of N1.73tr, US $11b equivalent, was submitted as claims for subsidy by 143 marketers, who were importing the product.

โ€œThese numbers seemed horrendously large compared to what I had last when I was in government in 2006, which was close to $2b in subsidy.

โ€œSo, we decided to study these claims. We audited about $8.4b worth of claims and we found out $2.5b worth of fraud. That is, many of these marketers were trying to claim $2.5b fraudulently.

โ€œWith the full backing of the President and the Economic Team, we decided that we were not going to entertain these claims or to pay.

โ€œThe pressure from affected marketers was tremendous not only to say we would not pay but also to say we would clean up the whole mechanism for the subsidy claims and put in place something more transparent, something clearer.

โ€œThis did not go down well with them. โ€œWhen we insisted on our position of non-payment and implementation of the new verification regime, these, and well-connected interests, were angered, and came to blame me personally for this.

โ€œThere were personal consequences. My 83-year-old mother, a retired professor of sociology, was kidnapped by four young men and held for five days.

โ€œShe was totally terrified. She asked them why she had been kidnapped and they told her โ€˜Because your daughter, the Finance Minister, refused to pay oil marketers their duesโ€™.

โ€œThe kidnappers, negotiating with my brother, demanded my resignation, publicly; that I should go on television, publicly and announce my resignation and depart from the country as a condition for my motherโ€™s release.

โ€œNeedless to say these were some of the worst days of my life. Imagine when you are in a position, you want your parents, all of whom are here with you today, and your relatives to be proud of you. You want to be a source of good for your family.

โ€œYou can imagine how I felt, sitting there and thinking, just because of trying to do something right. To implement a policy that was good for the country, to lead to the taking of my motherโ€™s life. These were some of the worst days of my life.

โ€œWith my fatherโ€™s support and the firm resolve of the President, we all decided I should not give in to the blackmailers and I refused to resign.

โ€œFollowing a manhunt for my mother by security agencies, she was able to make a dramatic escape after five days in captivity, where she was only given water and half of a sausage roll.

โ€œSo, here with the well-justified clean up and reform of a policy, but implemented in a dangerous reform environment where the losers in the reform, where the entrenched vested interests decided to fight back to derail implementation.

โ€œThe decision not to resign was a very difficult and risky one but, as it turned out, it worked.


โ€œBut on my down days, I ask myself, what if it hadnโ€™t? What if they had gone ahead and murdered my mother, as she overheard them planning to do with one of the handlers on the phone? Could I have justified trading firmness on policy and standing up to blackmailers, implementing a good policy for my motherโ€™s life? What decision would you have made?โ€


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Fuel Kidnapped Mother OkonjoIweala Reveals Subsidy
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