Many people see you as the face of subsidy removal in Nigeria. Some even are accusing you of playing out the script of the world bank and IMF in advising the president to remove the the subsidy and subject Nigerians to hardship and suffering. Are you comfortable with this?Absolutely not, because it's absolutely false. First of all, I worked at the World Bank and I'm proud of it, because I learned a lot. The world bank and IMF have nothing to do with this decision whatsoever. This is an internal government decision and President Goodluck Jonathan has made it very clear. When I was going to come here, there were groups that came to me and said they did not want me to join government because they want President Goodluck Jonathan's government to fail.
So these same people are now seizing the opportunity to say that I'm the face of subsidy removal. It's absolutely wrong. Remember that six months before I came, the governors had all pushed for subsidy removal. This subsidy removal has two decades of history. Almost every president from President Babangida to President Obasanjo has tried, to it's not Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. When I didn't know even what subsidy removal was, they were working on it.
But the report making the rounds is that you have threatened to resign if President Jonathan buckles under the pressure of opposition and rescinds the decision of subsidy.
Well I think that is absolutely laughable saying I threatened to resign. First of all, the emergency meeting about which this people cooked up this story, I was not even present. They said that the FEC held an emergency meeting on Wednesday during which they decided issues on the subsidy removal. I was not present because on that particular day I was with my family; I was ill, in Washington, suffering from bronchitis. I was not there, so how could I even resign or say any such thing? So it is false.
And I want to tell you that because these people don't want me to be working in this country, because I stand for very clear things like principles against corruption, principles like we love Nigeria so we must do the best to get this country moving. They don't want me here, so this is a golden opportunity for them to try and hang it on my neck, but they will never succeed, because that's not what it is about.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16467452
So these same people are now seizing the opportunity to say that I'm the face of subsidy removal. It's absolutely wrong. Remember that six months before I came, the governors had all pushed for subsidy removal. This subsidy removal has two decades of history. Almost every president from President Babangida to President Obasanjo has tried, to it's not Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. When I didn't know even what subsidy removal was, they were working on it.
But the report making the rounds is that you have threatened to resign if President Jonathan buckles under the pressure of opposition and rescinds the decision of subsidy.
Well I think that is absolutely laughable saying I threatened to resign. First of all, the emergency meeting about which this people cooked up this story, I was not even present. They said that the FEC held an emergency meeting on Wednesday during which they decided issues on the subsidy removal. I was not present because on that particular day I was with my family; I was ill, in Washington, suffering from bronchitis. I was not there, so how could I even resign or say any such thing? So it is false.
And I want to tell you that because these people don't want me to be working in this country, because I stand for very clear things like principles against corruption, principles like we love Nigeria so we must do the best to get this country moving. They don't want me here, so this is a golden opportunity for them to try and hang it on my neck, but they will never succeed, because that's not what it is about.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16467452
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