Katie Couric: Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala is Nigeria\u2019s Finance Minister named
\nrecently as one of Time\u2019s most influential people. I know that Abuja as we
\nare talking is hosting the World Economic Forum on Africa right now, are
\nyou concerned about how the image of Nigeria is being projected all around
\nthe world at a time when you are trying to encourage Western investors?<\/p>\n
Okonjo-Iweala: The WEFA has just ended and it has been a success for the
\ngirls. Over 1,000 participants were in attendance \u2013 world leaders as well
\nas global business leaders as well as African business leaders. And they
\ncame to show that they would stand against terror. That they will not
\naccept that people can abduct girls and stop their education.<\/p>\n
Specific initiatives also came out of the WEFA. There is a Safe Schools
\nInitiative where Nigerian businesses have come forward in collaboration
\nwith Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of Britain, to set up an
\ninitiative supported by business to set up safe schools for the girls and
\nthey said if the government matches them they put up 10 million dollars
\nimmediately, they will use it to launch this initiative. The president of
\nNigeria has announced that he will match that immediately.<\/p>\n
That is over and above all the efforts of the government so far to try and
\nprotect the schools better. So a specific initiative, solidarity of the
\ninternational community and global business, with the girls and a very
\nlarge turnout. This is the second largest World Economic Forum turnout
\noutside of Davos, according to WEF itself. So it has been a success for
\nthe girls and solidarity for Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Katie Couric: Let\u2019s talk about the more pressing matter of the nearly
\nthree hundred girls who are still missing. There has been a tidal wave of
\ncriticism about the Nigerian government\u2019s response to these kidnappings,
\nare you confident that President Jonathan\u2019s administration has done or is
\ndoing all it can to rescue these girls?<\/p>\n
Okonjo-Iweala: The President has openly pledged his commitment to do
\neverything to rescue these girls, and what I said before on CNN is
\naccepting that the government did not communicate what it was doing
\npreviously, because there was some element of reticence so as not to cause
\nharm to the girls. That should not have been the case, it should have been
\nthat there was communication so that the Nigerian public and the parents
\nof these girls know that action is being taken. Since that time the
\ngovernment has stepped up action, has appealed to the international
\ncommunity for help and is accepting help from the US, France, the UK,
\nChina and they are all coming in. The government has stepped up the number
\nof troops that are working there and is working with countries that have
\nsatellite imagery to do more.<\/p>\n
Katie Couric: Are you confident that the girls will be found, where are
\nthey, because it\u2019s been rumoured that many of them have been taken across
\nthe border to Chad?<\/p>\n
Okonjo-Iweala: Katie, no one can answer that question. There is no one who
\ncan tell you with confidence. What we can tell you is that every single
\npossible resource will be used to track these girls. You are dealing with
\npeople who are irrational. It is unacceptable that girls should be taken
\nanywhere in the world, and they do not represent any religion, as you have
\nheard many muslims have rejected what they have done. You have heard Prime
\nMinister Cameron said this is not a Nigerian problem, it is a global
\nproblem. You have heard President Obama said we should stand against these
\nterrorists. This is a global problem, we need to come together and fight
\nagainst it and Nigeria is accepting any help it can do with.<\/p>\n
Katie Couric: How trustworthy is President Goodluck Jonathan? Why do the
\nfamilies seem to know where the girls are but the government does not?
\n(Question from tweets)<\/p>\n
Okonjo-Iweala: I\u2019m not sure that characterization is correct, I think we
\nshould view this in a much more complex manner. The President said they
\nsearched in the Sambisa forest, they were not using aerial surveillance,
\nthey were not able to find the girls. This is a large area and it is not
\nclear whether they are still together in a group or whether they have been
\nsplit up, and the whole idea is that nothing should be done to harm the
\ngirls. In the past, the country has used some aerial surveillance but you
\ncan\u2019t do that because you don\u2019t want to end up harming the girls.<\/p>\n
So the characterization that the parents know more than the government, I
\ndon\u2019t want to enter into that because I have to tell you I\u2019m not a
\nsecurity expert. But I can only tell you that much that I know and that is
\nto share with you the commitment of the government and the country and the
\nsolidarity of the people coming together on this issue of bringing back
\nthe girls.<\/p>\n
Katie Couric: Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala do you have daughters?<\/p>\n
Okonjo-Iweala: I have a daughter, I have four children. That is why I came
\nout to say it is unacceptable, it is unimaginable that anyone would take
\nthese children. Anyone who has children, sons or daughters, one of the
\nmost unbelievable thing is the agony of not knowing where your loved one
\nis. My mother was kidnapped in mid December 2012, and for five agonizing
\ndays we did not know where she was. I have actually experienced it; this
\nis not from theory, it is one of the most terrible nightmares you could
\ndream about. So, for me, it is deep pain and depression to know that for
\ntheir mothers who are waiting, these are our daughters and we have to get
\nthem back.<\/p>\n
Katie Couric: As Finance Minister I know that this week your ambition is
\nto promote vast growth and current economic opportunity that exists in
\nNigeria, in fact the nation now leads the entire African continent in
\nterms of GDP, but an estimated 62% of the population live in extreme
\npoverty, do you believe this income inequality and lack of resources
\nparticularly in the North is contributing to the rise and recruitment
\npower of Boko Haram?<\/p>\n
Okonjo-Iweala: First of all the problem of inequality is something that
\nthe entire world is struggling with. There is this new book by Thomas
\nPiketty Capitalism in the 21st Century. That is the whole thesis, that
\nthere is the problem of inequality all over the world. 95% of the recent
\ngrowth of the US was captured by 1% of the people. So this is again a
\nglobal problem that we all need to learn from each other. Inequality is a
\nmajor challenge in the growth story of the whole of Africa and Nigeria.
\nAnd that is what we are working at, we do not want to grow with leaving
\nmore people behind, we want to change the quality of that growth. And I
\nthink the crux of that matter is creating jobs, people here do not want
\nhandouts, they want us to create decent jobs. The government is really
\nworking hard at improving agriculture, studies have shown that if you
\nimprove agriculture you are able to tackle poverty three times better and
\nfaster.<\/p>\n
We are working on that; we are turning around agriculture and we are
\nlaunching the housing sector to create jobs. We need 1.8 milllion jobs in
\nthe country, we are still creating 1.6 million; we are still falling short
\nplus we have the pool of the unemployed. The biggest focus in alleviating
\npoverty in Nigeria is creating jobs. The second is improving human
\ndevelopment indicators which are not very good. Maternal mortality, infant
\nmortality rate, children out of school these are things we are focusing on
\nto get our resources to the level where we use them effectively to deal
\nwith these problems.<\/p>\n
Katie Couric: I know you also deeply believe in the importance of girls\u2019
\neducation. Just last year the World Bank released a study on the
\nimportance of women to the growth and vitality of the African continent in
\ngeneral. Though the majority is small farmers, trade merchants, healthcare
\nworkers, educators. So how are you going to stop these extremists who want
\nwomen to stop going to school and getting jobs?<\/p>\n
Okonjo-Iweala: Katie we are going to stop the extremists with a
\nmulti-prong approach. It is not a simple thing; there is the military
\nangle, the insurgency angle, the political angle that has to be pursued
\nand also there is the development angle where we have to give our young
\npeople hope and make sure that their school is not interfered with, that
\nthey feel more secure. All these things have to be done. But it is not
\neasy fighting these acts of terrorism, if it was easy you will not find
\nthem cropping up all over the world. You will not see Afghanistan, or
\nPakistan or even the recent bombing in the US, the Boston Marathon. You
\nwill not see two or three decades of the Irish Republican army fighting in
\nthe UK; they were not able to defeat them despite the sophistication of
\nthe UK at the time. And it took a long time and political negotiation for
\nit to end.<\/p>\n
This kind of warfare is not standard, it\u2019s not the kind you move soldiers
\nand then go and face the people face to face. It is a war of attrition and
\nopportunity, it can crop up in any place in the world, and that is why
\nPresident Obama and Prime Minister Cameron have well articulated it by
\nsaying this is a war for all of us. So we have to join hands and join
\nresources. I think we need the help of modern technology, human insurgency
\nand intelligence experts to also help us. This is not going to be won by
\nconventional means.<\/p>\n
Katie Couric: Finally, before we go, on the streets of Nigeria as you well
\nknow and all around the world, people are posting #BringBackOurGirls. As a
\nrepresentative of the Nigerian government and a female global leader what
\nwould you say to the millions of people who are so frustrated and upset by
\nthe situation in your country?<\/p>\n
Okonjo-Iweala: I would say we in Nigeria are also frustrated and upset. A
\nfriend of mine tweeted me holding #BringBackOurGirls. We need to move
\nbeyond that into more action, that is what the world is asking for.<\/p>\n
I think we should focus on what Nigerians are asking for. We are deeply
\nfrustrated, all of us are. We have to move beyond that to not let the work
\nof the terrorists paralyse us. What I want to say to the world is don\u2019t
\nlet the work of the terrorists create division. Criticize, but do not let
\nit create division.<\/p>\n
This is a time that we need to come together as a world community to stand
\nwith Nigerians and Nigerians to stand together not apart in order to
\nfight. This is what the terrorists want, they want criticism, they want
\nnames to be called, they want frustration, they want people to be divided
\nand then they will win. If we stand together as a world community and
\nfocus on the girls and bringing them back and we show the terrorists that
\nterror will not win and then they will fail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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