‘There was no will to save under Jonathan,’ Ex-minister says

monjola sotubo

April 15, 2016 11:29 AM

Okonjo-Iweala made the comment on Thursday, April 14, 2016, while speaking at George Washington University.

Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is locked in a standstill with the marketers of crude oil. She accuses them of blackmail.

Okonjo-Iweala made the comment on Thursday, April 14, 2016, while speaking at George Washington University, The Cable reports.

The former minister also said that Nigeria was able to save $22 billion under former President, Olusegun Obasanjo.

“We saved $22 billion because the political will to do it was there. And when the 2008 /2009 crisis came, we were able to draw on those savings precisely to issue about a 5 percent of GDP fiscal stimulus to the economy and we never had to come to the bank or the fund," she said.

“This time around and this is the key now, you need not only need to have the instrument but you also need the political will. 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 added.

Obasanjo had earlier said that Okonjo-Iweala was a different person under his regimethan she was when she served with the Jonathan administration.

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