Cut out for the job: Zainab Ahmed steps in as Finance minister

SANYA ADEJOKUN in this piece looks at the pedigree of new Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed and her prospects for success in her new role.

 

Nigeria has literally relied on her foreign citizens to manage her finances at critical points since 2003. President Olusegun Obasanjo bought in Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in 2003 with a mixture of success and failure. Also in 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan again invited Okonjo-Iweala. In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari brought another ‘alien’, Mrs Kemi Adeosun to help him manage the nation’s finances.

In 2003, Okonjo-Iweala was an excellent choice. As Vice President of the World Bank, Obasanjo needed her influence and expertise in the global financial amphitheater. Her appointment benefitted the country tremendously by her tag-teaming with Obasanjo himself an internationally respected figure and other competent individuals to secure relief from the burdensome $34 billion foreign debt which eventually came in 2006.

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By the time that Jonathan invited her back in 2011, however, Okonjo-Iweala was more an albatross than asset to the government. Coming under the nomenclature of co-ordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Nigeria’s economy failed to improve any significantly except for the unprecedented revenue inflow from sale of crude oil despite which unemployment worsened while more debts also piled. By the time she signed off in May 2015, Federal Government had been borrowing to pay salaries for at least five months.

And with such battering that the economy received between 2011 and 2015, President Buhari had a herculean task of repositioning things when he was elected into office. He needed serious reforms including expanding revenue base of his government especially in the area of tax collection and plugging drain pipes. He brought Kemi Adeosun who was born, bred and began her career in the British private sector. Wobbling and fumbling on, Adeosun recorded modest achievements although her period ushered in Nigeria’s first recession in 29 years while unemployment and poverty further escalated.

Her last moments in office were, however, marked with battles with principalities and powers in the country’s high places. She had confrontations with almighty Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation with Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Abba Kyari as a board member. She sacked Director-General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the Oando saga and also disagreed with Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami over payment of commission to some lawyers for their roles in repatriation of over $300 million further Abacha loots. There were also talks about Adeosun stepping on other thorny toes of some other powerful individuals in the presidency who were angry that “she has the effrontery to scrutinise our proposals before approving them.”

And so, although she had the determination and competence to succeed at her task, Adeosun was greatly limited by her shallow understanding of the economic and political terrain of the environment where she found herself. Both structure and character of Nigeria’s economy are different from that of Britain and the West where she had her breeding.

 

Enters the home girl

It was against the above background that Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning since November 2015 was first appointed in the night of Friday, September 14, 2018 to oversee affairs in the Federal Ministry of Finance following Adeosun’s exit because she was discovered to have forged her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exemption certificate.

Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, a fellow of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) obtained her master’s degree from the Ogun State University, Ago Iwoye in 2004. She is a member, Nigerian Institute of Taxation and also Nigerian Institute of Management. She graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State in 1981. She was a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) set of 1981/1982 when she served at Messrs Egunjobi Suleiman & Co. Chartered Accountants, as an Audit Trainee.

She had earlier obtained her IJMB ‘A’ Levels from School of Basic Studies (SBS) of ABU Zaria in 1979 and West African School Certificate (WASC) ‘O’ Level in 1977 from Queen Amina College, Kaduna.

Born on June 16, 1960 in Kaduna State, Zainab started her formal employment in 1982 as an Accountant in the Ministry of Finance, Kaduna State and finally resigned in 1985 to join the Nigerian Telecommunication Ltd (NITEL). In 2010, she was appointed Executive Secretary and National Coordinator, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).

In between all those, she has served as the Managing Director, Kaduna Industrial and Finance Co. Ltd (KIFC), and also was appointed member of the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG).

Was Zainab appointed in the belief that her shoe would be a more malleable character in the hands of those bent on seizing control of treasury? Only time will tell. However, a peep into the antecedent of the new Minister of Finance would reveal a stubborn character that may turn out a thorn in the flesh of potential looters.  Even as Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab could not shed the characteristics of Executive Secretary of NEITI. NEITI is the semi-independent agency mandated by law to promote transparency in the management of Nigeria’s oil, gas and mine revenues.

With revenue from oil and gas forming the largest chunk of foreign exchange inflows and federation account, analysts are predicting a deepening and probable prolongation of the fight between Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Relationship between the two entities has been less than cordial since the beginning of 2018 with FAAC, accusing NNPC of opaqueness in the operation of its accounts. Zainab is both an accountant and a former boss at NEITI. NEITI also has consistently indicted NNPC in its annual reports of not fully remitting proceeds from its oil and gas operations including proceeds from royalties and dividends from Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited.

Even as Minister of State, Budget and National Planning (MBNP), Mrs Ahmed raised an alarm when remittances of independent revenue by generating agencies dropped and urged National Assembly members to make laws that will enforce proper remittances.

During her time in MBNP, she was responsible for mobilisation of humanitarian assistance to the North East devastated by Boko Haram insurgency by coordinating all activities of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) intervening in the region.

Packing a strong and determined personality under her seemingly gentle and fragile mien, she visited some of the most dangerous places in the North East such as Chibok and Bama terrorised by the insurgents at the height of the insurgency while compiling interventionist projects by development partners.

She was also said to have contributed towards the inauguration of committee for €54.5 million support project aimed at contributing to the stabilisation of the North-East Nigeria through strengthening the resilience of Internally Displaced Persons, host communities, returning refugees and the local population affected by insurgency.

It will be seen what the new Minister of Finance will do in the macroeconomic environment in the twilight of the administration, especially considering that nine months into 2018, capital budget was yet to commence implementation in a country with 19 per cent unemployment rate.