REVEALED: How To End Corruption In Nigeria--Okonjo-Iweala

The Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has said Nigeria must punish offenders and build institutions if the country wants to win the war against corruption.

 * Okonjo-Iweala, left, and Fareed Zakaria

In an interview, yesterday, with Fareed Zakaria's GPS programme on CNN, the former World Bank President said, “ No one can fight corruption for Nigerians except Nigerians.  Everyone has to be committed from the top to the bottom to fight it”

She said: “And I think there are two key things that need to be done all along, and it’s not just in Nigeria.  It’s in many developing countries that you need to do this.

“But in our country, you need to, coupled with – by all means pursue those who are corrupt, punish them, you know, make sure there’s no impunity.  But that has to be coupled with something which doesn’t get as much attention, which is building institutions.  It’s unglamorous; it’s work that takes time, but we have to do it.  We have to put it in place.”

When asked on why the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was fired, the Okonjo-Iweala responded: "You know, Fareed, what I would like to do is perhaps focus on the economy, because I don’t think I want to get into this issue of firing/not firing.  He’s still governor of the central bank.  He has been suspended.  He hasn’t been fired.

"But I think we need to focus on the central issue, which is no one dollar should be lost from the treasury.  Any money that belongs to it must be remitted.  That’s what we’re insisting.

"And the president, we pushed for – he has ordered one yesterday, that there should be a forensic audit to determine where these moneys, that what is unaccounted for, is it the $10.8 billion that we are saying from the accounts?

"We’ve been working on this for two years.

"And you know, is it $50 billion?  Is it $20 billion?  Is it $12 billion?  What is the amount?  We need to know for the sake of the Nigerian people and he has ordered that.  So we want it to be independent; we want it to be well done, so that we can lay it to rest."