Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the first woman and first African to hold the position. An economist and international development expert with more than forty years of experience, she served as Nigeria's first female and longest-serving Finance Minister (seven years) and the first female Foreign Minister in 2006. She was also Managing Director of the World Bank from 2007 to 2011. She was Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2016–2020), the African Risk Capacity (2014–2020), and Cochair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. She is the author of
A frontline account of how to fight corruption, from Nigeria's former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
In Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has written a primer for those working to root out corruption and disrupt vested interests. Drawing on her experience as Nigeria's finance minister and that of her team, she describes dangers, pitfalls, and successes in fighting corruption. She provides practical lessons learned and tells how anti-corruption advocates need to equip themselves. Okonjo-Iweala details the numerous ways in which corruption can divert resources away from development, rewarding the unscrupulous and depriving poor people of services.
Okonjo-Iweala discovered just how dangerous fighting corruption could be when her 83-year-old mother was kidnapped in 2012 by forces who objected to some of the government's efforts at reforms led by Okonjo-Iweala—in particular a crackdown on fraudulent claims for oil subsidy payments, a huge drain on the country's finances. The kidnappers' first demand was that Okonjo-Iweala resign from her position on live television and leave the country. Okonjo-Iweala did not resign, her mother escaped, and the program of economic reforms continued. “Telling my story is risky,” Okonjo-Iweala writes. “But not telling it is also dangerous.” Her book ultimately leaves us with hope, showing that victories are possible in the fight against corruption.
Download citation file:
Table of Contents
- Open Access
- Free
- Available
- No Access