John Kuffour have been nominated a member of the World Bank Commission created by World Bank Group President, Robert B. Zoellick in October 2008 to focus on the modernization of World Bank Group governance ‘so the World Bank Group can operate more dynamically, effectively, efficiently, and legitimately’.
Olusegun Obasanjo was nominated as the Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General to the DRC last November. The UN is giving Obasanjo, a most coveted makeover as a statesman. But to some, the “UN makes a star of Obasanjo”, in his effort to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the international community after his botched effort to turn himself to a Nigerian tin pot dictator.
You can take your pick on which of these two gentlemen and their new positions is more respectable, more credible or more important to Africa.
The World Bank body to which Kuffour was nominated would be an independent, high-level commission tasked with making recommendations on how the institution is governed so that it can better fulfill its mission of overcoming global poverty.
“By bringing the perspectives of a diverse group of leaders from outside the institution, the High-Level Commission will complement the Board’s important work on internal governance reform,” said Zoellick.
Announcing the commission’s membership in London, World Bank Group Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said: “The commission is timely as it further enhances the voice of developing countries in contributing to governance reform within the World Bank Group.”
The 12 members of the Commission, chaired by former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, have all held or hold senior positions at an international level and are drawn from developed and developing countries.
Other Members of the High Level Commission include Dr. Arminio Fraga, former President of the Central Bank of Brazil; Mr. Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO); Mrs. Sadako Ogata, President of Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA); John F.W. Rogers, Secretary to the Board, Goldman Sachs; Mr. Herman Wijffels, former World Bank Executive Director and former Chairman of the Board of Rabobank; Baroness Shriti Vadera, Minister for Economic Competitiveness and Small Business, United Kingdom; Mrs. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany; Dr. Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People’s Bank of China among others.
The commission is in furtherance of the World Bank’s Board of Governors phase of reforms to increase the influence of developing countries within the World Bank Group, including adding a seat for Sub-Saharan Africa to allow developing countries a majority of seats on the Executive Board, and expanding voting and capital shares.
On the other hand, Olusegun Obasanjo is appointed the UN special envoy to help bring peace to The Democratic Republic of the Congo; an area that “epitomizes instability in Africa”. With wealth in its soil beyond compare, the DRC has not known many years without conflict since it became independent of Belgium in 1960. The dominators of the area keep changing, but the violence fed by dealings in illegal mining of precious metals, especially Diamond, has baffled observers throughout the past decade.
Whichever job you pick as more important, the important issue is whether both men is qualified for the jobs, and therefore, whether the August world bodies should have made those appointments ab initio.
Today, I am more concerned with the perception of their countrymen to those appointments. Olusegun Obasanjo is engaged in a running battle with groups that are hell-bent on stopping him from giving a lecture at the London School of Economics. A group (NLF) and other Nigerians have been joined by other groups from the DRC in denouncing Obasanjo’s reception by the LSE. The former Nigerian leader plans to address students and faculty members of the college regarding the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Sonala Olumhense has done justice to how ordinary Nigerians perceive Obasanjo (among other things an ex-dictator that murdered thousands who demanded a fair distribution of wealth in the oil-rich Niger Delta.) but I doubt whether Ghanaians living in London would troop out in protest against Kuffour giving a lecture in a London university about his new job with the World Bank.
Mr. Kuffour assumed the reins of power at a time when the Ghanaian national coffers and reserves were dry, with its attendant effects on inflation and lending rates, weaker state institutions and a precarious security situation. In spite those challenges, Kuffour built a Ghana capable of supporting the poor, and bridging the gap between the poor and the rich, thereby creating wealth out of empty coffers.
He introduced the Capitation grant, National Health Insurance, free Maternity care, a policy which enables pregnant women to deliver at the hospitals and clinics at no cost; Free Bussing system; a National School feeding programme, which has not only increased enrolment at basic schools, but also increased the retention rate, as well and other pro poor policy interventions.
A health sector, which was then running on the deadly wheels of a cash and carry system in the year 2000, had to be replaced by Mr. Kufuor’s government with a more humane National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The result of these is the resilient economy and credibility that Ghanaians are witnessing today, though John Atta Mills is finding it very difficult to maintain the standards already set by Kuffour.
According to some Ghanaians, the legacies of the former President can only be compared to those of the late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President. But unlike their first president, while Nkrumah had post independent seed money to start off, Kuffour came to meet a nation on its knees and created a heroic Ghana out of zero.
Ironically, John Kuffour is engaged in a running battle with John Atta Mills, the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) president of Ghana. He is reportedly worried about the retrieval of cars from his residence and the hullabaloo surrounding his new office in Accra. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has sought to damage the former President’s reputation and engage in actions that are meant to humiliate him.
Moreover to some Ghanaians, while John Kuffour certainly did his bit in strengthening Ghana's democracy (he in fact publicly counselled Obasanjo against going for a third term), yet he lost favour from the people including his own party members who accused him of causing the party's defeat.
But the contrast between what Nigerians expect of their president and the Ghanaian expectation is summed by a Ghanaian journalist who said: “I would remember Kuffour as the president who never punished corruption. He once said that he is not corrupt because people brought him money and bribes “waawaa”, but he turns them down. Is that what a serious president supposed to do with people who attempt to bribe him”?
Did Obasanjo turn down bribes? Be the Judge.
For effect the person that announced John Kuffour’s membership of the World Bank body was no other person than Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla, the World Bank Group Managing Director and Nigeria's former minister of finance and later external affairs minister, and a woman Obasanjo forced out of his cabinet.
I am sure with Obasanjo's history of looting of which Ngozi had an inside knowledge, she dare not... would anyone allow Olusegun Obasanjo near any Bank!
Daniel Elombah publishes www.elombah.com
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