The Independent is today edited by Bono. On hearing the news I groaned, but having read it on the web, he’s got to get marks for producing a considerably more sober and serious newspaper than usual – even with a Damien Hirst front page.
The outstanding article to my mind is the piece about Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s finance minister, who is making a serious, and successful effort to tackle corruption.
Last year Nigeria was named as one of the 21 most improved countries in 2005. “Some very, very powerful people including the inspector general of police [Nigeria’s top cop] have been brought to book. He has been tried, and is now in jail on several counts,” the minister says with a grim smile. “Two judges have been suspended, two sacked outright, three ministers sacked, two rear-admirals, a state governor, top customs officials. Did we get all the people? Not yet – but we’ve got enough to send a powerful signal and [generate] a powerful fear. People in power now know they can’t act with impunity.” The tentacles of her anti-fraud operation have reached down to lower levels too. More than 500 people behind internet “advance fees” scams have been jailed for frauds estimated to have milked more than $100m a year out of gullible Americans alone.
This is the first I’ve read of this story, and it of course reminded me of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, recently elected president of Liberia, which has just been named by the UN as one of the UN’s list of forgotten stories. Not quite sure that’s the case with that story – although the publicity was due to the fact a famous footballer was her opponent, and have read precious little since about Liberia’s progress.
There are many parallels between the two women – both formerly high-level UN bureaucrats. I’ve never met either of them, but in my UN days I met many high-powered UN women from Africa who were desperate to try to deal with these issues of corruption and underdevelopment.
Could they, as a class, be the saviours of Africa, given the chance to do so? It might be one of the continent’s best chances overall.
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